In the opening sequence of "Quantum of Solace," James Bond speed-crashes his way through a winding Italian highway. This mangled-metal car chase is fun, yet in a strange way it doesn't really feel like a James Bond scene. It's a bit too "I saw it before in 'The Bourne Supremacy.'"

"Quantum of Solace" is a dutifully diverting Bond movie; it's a decent night out, it gets the job done, and all that. Yet it's often just a shade away from being a rather earthbound conspiracy thriller.

If "Casino Royale" reinvented the series with a dramatic excitement that was almost symphonic, "Quantum of Solace" is a thin, cold, rather reductive encore.

The conceit of the movie is that Bond, his heart hardened by the death of his lover Vesper Lynd, has become a vengeful killing machine. Daniel Craig, with that tough pug's face, certainly excels at the kind of merciless, staccato executions that give Bond his license to thrill.

From what I saw, though, there wasn't a single killing in the movie that was less than justified on the Hollywood-espionage level. Bond disobeys his superiors, but he never really goes over the edge into cruelty or rage, which may be why Craig, for all his craggy bad-boy charisma, seems stuck on one cutthroat note, starved for the chance to really act.

The globe-trotting plot has Bond up against an evil developer, played by the French actor Matthieu Amalric, who is out to steal Bolivia's natural resources and dupe the CIA. Amalric, who looks like a more weasel-like Roman Polanski, is a terrific actor, but am I the only one who thinks this money-hungry scheme seems a bit prosaic?

As for the new Bond babe, Olga Kurylenko, she plays a woman so bent on her own mission of vengeance that she looks like she could hardly be bothered to fall for a super spy.

"Quantum of Solace" is never dull, but there's a word for what it could have used more of – extravagance.