Quantum of Solace is the first James Bond picture that technically can be labeled a sequel -- and it feels like one, too. The plot of the 22nd 007 adventure picks up directly where the previous one left off, with Bond (Daniel Craig) looking to avenge the death of his beloved Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), who was killed at the end of Casino Royale.

The guy responsible turns out to be Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric), a big-time player with a villainous international consortium known as Quantum -- a consortium so secretive even Bond's boss M (Judi Dench) has never heard of it.

That's pretty much all there is to Quantum of Solace, aside from Bond's surprisingly platonic relationship with Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a Bolivian beauty who tags along with him as he zig-zags the globe, hoping to carry out her own plan of revenge on the baddies who killed her family.

But most of Quantum of Solace is devoted to wrapping up Casino Royale's loose ends and continuing Bond's still-ongoing refinement from trigger-happy killing machine to suave and judicious secret agent. The film feels more like an extended epilogue than a stand-alone adventure, which may be because it is the shortest (105 minutes) entry in the series.

Director Marc Forster, a newcomer to the franchise, is known for character-driven dramas (The Kite Runner, Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland), which makes him a curious choice for a Bond picture. Quantum does give M more screen time than usual to develop her relationship with her best and most problematic agent, and there's a nice interlude between Bond and his Casino Royale pal Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), which is the closest the story comes to genuinely exploring the hero's roiling grief.

But through most of Quantum of Solace, Craig runs around with his jaw clenched in furious determination, befitting a man on a mission.

That mission consists of one gigantic setpiece after another. The best of them -- an extended Hitchcockian sequence in which Bond stalks the Quantumers during a performance of Tosca in Austria -- is elegant enough to stand up to anything in the franchise.

Others, like a foot chase that ends with Bond and his target dangling from pulleys, or a fight aboard speeding boats where the camera puts you closer to the action than usual, deliver the requisite thrills. But Quantum of Solace never really engages you in the mechanical but transporting way the best Bond movies (or even the Bourne pictures) do. The film's chief purpose is to bring the rebooted franchise to the point where the villains can get a little kookier and the premises a little more outlandish. It's a stopgap, albeit a well-crafted one, and halfway through it, I started wishing it was over so we could get on to the next Bond movie. That one, I suspect, is going to be a lot of fun. Quantum of Solace, not so much.

Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Almaric, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright.

Director: Marc Forster.

Screenwriters: Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade.

Producers: Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli.

A Sony Pictures release. Running time: 105 minutes. Vulgar language, violence, gore, sexual situations, adult themes. Playing at area theaters.

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