The Q of S

"What did you think?"

"Weirdly, Quantum of Solace is probably the first movie where I've finished the videogame adaptation before seeing the movie. I got this weird sense of spacial familiarity - as if it was set locally, or somewhere I'd visited.  Somewhere less liberally sprinkled with armed henchmen."

"Does it pass muster?  The game, I mean."

"Well it's probably the best Wii Zapper game I've played so far.  I probably wouldn't have bought it is I hadn't ended up playing big-screen GoldenEye at the V&A on friday night.  And yes, it's probably the most GoldenEyeish game ever made.  And while that's not a bad thing, it would have been a much better thing 10 years ago.  And it's a reasonable approximation of the recent movies, but then they have fewer instances of Bond throwing himself off buildings due to the stupid dual-function jump button." 

"Does it open with a chase between two, presumably paid, product-placement, cars.  Which was the evil car - the Alfa Romeo or the Aston Martin?"

"No driving levels for once.  Maybe in the movie it's like that tech-physiognomy from the first season of 24 where people's brand choices flagged their traitorous intentions.  It's weird, for all the luxury brands on display the only thing I covet is one of those little Q badges."

"It's a classy conspiracy that issues its own lapel pin.  It's a shame that was the only Q in the movie."

"Oh, I think the Quatermaster's days are over.  This is Bourne-era now, our tech isn't invisicar stupafantastical. It's now subject to the increasingly short gap between new/hotness and old/busted.  We probably don't need grandad explaining a gadget that'll seem obsolete by the time the blu-ray is released."

"Pay attention double-oh-seven - this is what we're calling a cellular telephone."

"They just put it out there and trust the audience gets it: you've  either watched those TED videos or this is the first table-surface computer you've seen, but you still get it.  This Sony cybershot  phone-cam works differently - fine. This headpiece comms channel is probably encrypted, no need to make a point of saying it.  They don't even go out of their way to explain the combustability of those hydrogen fuel-cells at the end of the movie, they just casually point them out and minutes later... boom."

"Hydrogen fuel-cells?"

"Yeah, what did you think was causing those explosions?"

"I just assumed it was product placement for Sony's laptop batteries."