Welcome to my new love jones. Christ, this guy is hot. I've been reading a lot of reviews of Quantum before and after my viewing of it, and there is a lot of outrage out there about the amount of violence and action (not the usual kind) that Bond sees in this film. That James Bond is an attitude, not an action hero. I should preface the following statements with the disclaimer that I have not yet seen Casino Royale, the film to which Quantum is a direct sequel (also a first for Bond). But I have a rebuttal to the whole wave against this movie.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but in Royale James Bond actually falls in love and then his love is murdered. Okay, so what did everyone expect him to be like, following his experience with that? Psychologically speaking, he'd be very angry and distant and hungry for vengeance, and maybe a wee bit violent, yes? And he is a spy who is trained to kill, yes? So put those two factors together, and you get a James Bond who feels like beating the shit out of people and protecting beautiful women without getting too close to them. I admit, I was a little bereft when Bond didn't get the usual amount of play (although that redhead was super cute), but it made sense to me.

Maybe it's because I'm a girl and I understand. I empathize. I liked this story because it made sense to me that he had loved, lost, and the suave, cool Bond that we all know and love would develop after all this action went down as a defense mechanism to protect himself from ever being vulnerable to love again, and to avoid killing again if he didn't have to. He decided to choose the cool factor vs. the passion principle for his own sake. I think these two movies are an explanation that the attitude developed for a reason - James Bond was a man before he turned himself into the myth.