Review of No Time to Die (2021) by Mattbrady99 — 08 Oct 2021

‘No Time to Die’ is the end of an era for Daniel Craig's James Bond, the Bond of my era, and what a bittersweet finale. Daniel Craig delivers one of his finest performances since ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Skyfall’, with so much emotion, humor, depth, and passion. Despite his attitude towards the role over the years, I still think Craig brings something unique and fresh to the character that is consistent for 15 years, which is making the most masculine ladies’ man that ever guy desires to be, into a broken man with so much pain and inner loss that it makes him visually vulnerable. Showing this on screen, especially for a male character in an action series like Bond, is often ridiculed, but it only makes him more human and it’s something I always appreciated. He echoes back to Sean Connery smoothness, George Lazenby’s loss, and Timothy Dalton’s ruthlessness. Craig is so excellent in this movie that he further makes the character defined in his own image. Ian Fleming often descried Bond as a “shadow” of a person and I think Craig really makes that transparent in the series. He is one of the best Bond's ever. Whoever takes over the lead role has some massive shoes to fill, because I can’t imagine where to take the character next.

Rami Malek as the villain Safin was good but isn't in the movie that much. However, the opening sequence with him was so menacing and visually memorable, it made for a strong opening. It was like an opening to a slasher movie. Léa Seydoux returns as Madeleine from ‘Spectre’ and this time has a lot more to work with here, and Seydoux also delivers a great performance. The chemistry between her and Craig is much stronger this time around, as it was more loving, passionate, and complicated that by the end I did find myself caring for the two. All the supporting cast were well utilised, especially Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q, and Jeffrey Wright as Felix, who are the only people that Bond could call friends. Ana de Armas made a strong long-lasting impression on me despite the small screen time. But I have a feeling we will see more of her soon. Christoph Waltz returns briefly as Blofeld and Waltz is always good. I did like the obvious homage to “Hannibal Lecter” when Blofeld is brought out of his high-tech jail cell for questioning and the unnerving build up to it. That’s the weirdest part of this movie; there’s a lot of horror elements, or on paper “horror concepts. Coming to think of it, this could also apply to the previous Craig Bond movies, it’s just that now I’m starting to notice it.

The new theme song performed by Billie Eilish is both heart-breaking and Eilish’s is so in control of her singing, starting off soft in tone, then getting louder for the gut punch. I had goosebumps when the theme song started playing in the cinema. The context of the song with the previous scene made it even more devastating and fitted the movie so well. The cinematography by Linus Sandgren looked so gorgeous and stunning, with a great mixture of neon colours, stylising the spy genre once again. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga, like all directors should do when it comes to a film series, is keeping it fresh and exciting and he delivers exactly that. The action scenes were fantastic and such an improvement over the previous movies. One scene that comes to mind is an action scene where Bond makes his way up a stairway but there are henchmen in the way and Bond clears them out. A couple times he runs out of ammunition, so he quickly grabs a dead henchman’s gun just in the nick of time. Another action scene that comes to mind takes place in the woods, with the foggy setting, and Bond taking everyone out while protecting the ones he loves. It was surprisingly intense. Gunshots and explosions haven’t been this slick in a while. One long takes, great set pieces, and awesome execution that was satisfying to watch. Also, never in a million years would I thought I would cry watching a James Bond movie, but I was wrong. Very emotional.

On the other hand, the movie is a lot campier with one liners, the villains main plan and gadgets being more absurd than ever, while also connecting the previous Craig movies in the same vein, which somehow wasn't a mess despite me cringing at times It's a long movie, 2 hours, and 43 minutes, and yet there isn’t a scene that I could think of that I would remove, because there’s so much good character scenes.

I found it kind of ridiculous the amount of times Bond manages to survive an explosion, up close as well. I know the movie is going for more extreme in terms of action set pieces rather than grounded realism, but the only outcome he got from a grenade blast up close is a ringing ear drop, with the classic 'EEEEEEEEEEEEE' sound.

Not flawless by any means, but I'm just happy that out of the final Bond movies, this is by far the strongest. Thank you Daniel Craig.