REEL CRITIC:

Daniel Craig continues to pump up the James Bond franchise with his second effort as the legendary super spy in “Quantum of Solace.” He maintains the cool hand with a hot trigger finger dispatching bad guys by the score. The stunning Olga Kurylenko is well cast as his latest femme fatale.

The action scenes are top-notch and provide the required heart-pounding excitement. But the nonstop pace is completely frenetic. In contrast to the excellent “Casino Royale,” this screenplay is poorly written with haphazard direction. The patchwork film editing creates so much confusion that you will not understand who is chasing who or why they want to kill each other.

The film opens in the middle of a chaotic car chase with guns blazing. It ends without any understanding of what is really going on. There are more unexplained hectic action sequences throughout the film. All the baffling developments lead to 007 being branded as a rogue agent. His former comrades are suddenly seeking to kill him along with the villain of the piece, a business mogul gone bad.

The first installment of the Daniel Craig era was a carefully crafted revision of the Bond franchise. In comparison, the current movie looks like it was randomly cut and pasted together from previous scenes. But thanks to Craig’s presence in the starring role, there’s still plenty in left in this formula to leave fans of the series shaken, if not stirred.

JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office.