I saw the new James Bond movie this weekend. Ever since the last movie, I have been inter­ested in what the title sequence would be for this new movie. “Casino Royale” really raised the bar for the graphic pre­sen­ta­tion. While it was dis­ap­pointing to see them stray so much from the sig­na­ture look (I still con­sider “Casino Royale” an action movie and not a Bond movie) the title sequence (and Chris Cornell’s great music) was an excel­lent expres­sion of the movie’s tone and content.

In that regard, I think “Quantum of Solace” does well. The titles for this movie are clearly not as excel­lent as for “Casino Royale”, but that is a high and per­haps unre­al­istic expec­ta­tion. They are very good and – impor­tant to me – more closely adhere to the ‘Bond brand’ that is familiar. The movie reflects this; it felt more like a Bond movie even as the fran­chise is being taken in a dif­ferent direc­tion with Daniel Craig and Paul Haggis. This is not entirely unwel­come. While my per­sonal favorite Bond is still Pierce Brosnan, he was never given great mate­rial to work with. They squan­dered his talent for chan­neling that James Bond swagger; in “Casino Royale” Bond is referred to as a ‘blunt instru­ment’, which describes Craig’s Bond well. Brosnan brought a wit and style to the role that has been missing since Sean Con­nery. But this is a new cen­tury and Craig is a great fit for the modern audience.

The music for the title sequence also fit with the style of the movie; they retained the hard rock feel of Cornell’s track by inviting Jack White but intro­duced an ele­ment of soul with Alicia Keys. The result is a good if slightly uneven product that I enjoyed. My girl­friend Monica did not. But, as I pointed out, it’s better than Madonna’s hor­rible “Die Another Day”.