A really good bad guy is required to raise the superspy’s game.

Cool gadgets and breathtaking stunts can take the Bond franchise only so far. And considering that this latest Bond, “Quantum of Solace,” is the 22nd 007 installment in a series that now spans 46 years, those elements have taken it far indeed.

But it’s the baddies who have always invigorated Bond. Red Grant, Rosa Klebb, Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Jaws, Xenia Onatopp. (Onatopp! Coolest. Bond. Villain. Name. Ever.) All challenged and tested him and took him to the limit. Those were evil-doers extraordinaire.

“Casino Royale” was the exception to the rule. Daniel Craig’s first outing with the license to kill was all about him. Could he re-energize a languishing franchise? Could he make Bond electrifying again?

He could.

He did.

“Casino,” kinetic and filled with a sense of cold remorselessness, banished all the jokiness and urbanity that had encrusted the Bond movies over the years. It returned Bond to first principles. It was a brutal reminder of what the carrier of that special license is all about.

He.

Is.

A.

Killer.

Craig, with his icy blue eyes and pitiless demeanor, remade Bond and owned “Casino” from his first scene. Only when it was over did you realize that Le Chiffre was almost a cipher. A leaky eye and a studied impassivity at the card table do not a memorable villain make.

In “Casino” Craig proved himself to be the best Bond since Connery. But what to do for an encore?

What was needed was an adversary worthy of this rougher, tougher Bond. “Quantum of Solace” doesn’t meet the need.

Dominic Greene is a bad guy in the Chiffre mold: a cold Eurofish. Played by French actor Mathieu Amalric, he’s an oily schemer with big ambitions but a small-bore personality.

And what’s up with that name? Dominic Greene? It’s a good appellation for an accountant but an inadequate moniker for a megalomaniacal mastermind.

Greene heads up a cabal so secretive that no one, not even MI6, has a clue as to its existence. It’s a group of resource plunderers and their big scheme is to corner the world market on … ah, can’t say. It would give away one of the movie’s bigger surprises. Which, true to form for this picture, turns out to be slightly soggy.

Credited screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis and director Marc Forster (“The Kite Runner,” “Finding Neverland”) apparently were eager to make Bond relevant to the age of resource depletion and green consciousness. Well, good for them, but on the other hand: So what?

Bond movies are about escapism, pure and simple. Give us car chases. Give us boat chases. Airplane chases, too, if you’ve got ’em. A foot chase can be cool, especially if it’s through narrow alleys and across slippery rooftops.

“Quantum” certainly gives us all those things. The picture opens with Bond being relentlessly pursued on a narrow mountain road by anonymous triggermen who absolutely shred the bodywork of his snazzy Aston Martin DBS with machine-gun fusillades. It’s a grabby opening, joltingly edited for maximum visceral impact.

The picture leaps from chase to chase, and all are dazzling set pieces. But there’s a certain familiarity about them, too. We’ve seen scenes like them in previous Bonds (the rooftop chase echoes the one in “Casino Royale”). They meet the standards set by the series, but we want more.

Craig is as authoritative in the role as he was in “Casino Royale.” His Bond is still a dangerous brute, a fact that can’t be disguised by even the priciest designer suit. When the situation calls for it, he kills without compunction, which makes him both valued and distrusted by his boss M, again played by Judi Dench. The most significant conflict is not between Bond and Greene but between Bond and M, who regards him with distaste because she sees him as a loose cannon.

The picture picks up right where “Casino Royale” left off, with Bond angrily mourning his lover Vesper Lynd, killed at the end of that earlier movie. M frets that his desire to avenge her death will interfere with his work, and there’s a lot of back-and-forth between them on that score. Too much, in fact.

The obligatory Bond Beauty this time is played by statuesque model-turned-actress Olga Kurylenko, and she gives a capable performance as a spy with her own vengeful agenda. But any romance between her and 007 is foreclosed by the screenwriters. His single amorous conquest is another woman, and it’s handled in such a hurried manner as to suggest the filmmakers saw it simply as a sop to Bond’s fans. You get the feeling they just wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible.

“Quantum” is competently crafted, but it lacks juice. Let’s hope that next time Bond’s handlers match him up with the equal of a 21st-century Goldfinger. Now that would be something to see.

Soren Andersen: 253-597-8660 * * *

Quantum of Solace

Director: Marc Forster

Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright

Running Time: 1:46

Rating: PG-13; violence, sexual situations

Where: In wide release; showtimes, Pages 24-25

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