One of the first movies to get delayed early last year was James Bond’s 25th movie. It jumped to numerous release dates in hopes that someday it could make its money at the box office. Now, audiences finally get to see Daniel Craig’s final role in the franchise.
No Time to Die follows the events of 2015’s Spectre. Bond is traveling with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) and has to face hard truths about who he can trust. He has left her majesty’s secret service and wants to be left alone. However, he can’t stay away from danger long as he gets entangled with a case the CIA and MI6 are both pursuing.
Craig’s tenure as Bond fits well with every other actor. He has incredible high points, but has also hit some of the lowest lows. The numerous writers and directors have attempted to take plotlines that began with Casino Royale and have them lead into a grander conspiracy that links it all together. It’s all a bit too convoluted at this point, but director Cary Fukunaga together with screenwriters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis do their best to wrap up loose ends to this five-film series. Though it does take 2 hours and 43 minutes to get there.
Daniel Craig’s time as Bond feels like isolated when compared to the other 20 movies of the franchise. This particular iteration feels more like a creator’s take on the various Batman reboots that lives inside its own window. I choose to see it that way because there are a few moments within No Time To Die that will upset long-time Bond aficionados. I say this as someone who didn’t care for the gotcha Blofeld introduction in Spectre.
As Bond has retired from service, he interacts with the new 007 Nomi (Lashana Lynch), Paloma (Ana de Armas) as he attempts to find out who the mysterious Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) is and what villainous purpose he might be up to. Lynch glowers through the entire movie and shows that she might not be ready for 00 status. Ana de Armas shows up for 5 minutes and steals each one of those minutes in a thrilling action scene.
The focus and the runtime are the real villains of this particular movie. Malek is perfectly suited to play a Bond villain, but the shallow motivations and intentions place him among the forgettable antagonists of the franchise. He’s at his best in the intro of the movie. It plays out like a horror movie and had my immediate attention. The obsession of the filmmakers with Spectre/Quantum/Who Cares is the dragging point and the cause of many of this movie’s plot holes. Which wouldn’t be an issue, if the movie didn’t take so much time trying to explain away all of them.
Okay, we got our negativity out. Let’s talk about the good and even great. No Time to Die is a big step up from the apathy-inducing Spectre. Madeleine is a far better character this time around and inspires several of the movie’s emotional scenes. Craig looks to be giving his final outing a solid effort (Perhaps because he knew this was his swan song). He is even given several chances to ham it up and toss puns out after kills. He seems to be having the most fun in the role here.
What this movie lacks in one big unforgettable action set piece, it divides between several action scenes that are actually thrilling (Though the always expected final siege and battle feels like they made it up as they went along). The action is often threaded perfectly with the emotional tugs that few Bond movies have had before. Also, the score by Hans Zimmer adds ideal punctuation to both the quiet and intense scenes.
I feel that No Time to Die may be an extremely divisive movie in this long-running series. It takes some major risks and most of them really pay off. Though, some of the risks just inflate the runtime and keeps the focus on mediocre new characters or superfluous returning ones. I liked the levity mixed with the emotional punches and thrilling action. Craig’s Bond gets plenty of closure here, but the experience seems like it’s trying so hard to complete a grand arc, that it will require mandatory homework of the previous four. Yes, even Quantum of Solace and Spectre. Sorry. B-
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