No Time to Die
No Time to Die
Starring Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Starring Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
There's a few iconic names in entertainment that have withstood the test of time, and one of them is James Bond, who first appeared in Sir Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale before hitting the big screen in 1962's "Dr. No." Since then there's been fourteen books based on the MI6 spy, and now the twenty-fifth movie with "No Time to Die," and seven actors have played the memorable role: Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. The series has had it's ups and downs, and after the Pierce Brosnan era, it seemed that the franchise was on a deep downswing, until they cast Daniel Craig as the next James Bond and decided to start at the beginning with "Casino Royale," based on Fleming's first novel. The result was a re-vitalization of the franchise, and Daniel Craig fully embodied the role from the very first frame, and his tenure as Bond was met with some of the franchise's all-time highs ("Casino Royale," "Skyfall"), lows ("Quantum of Solace"), and so-so ("Spectre"). "No Time to Die" serves as Daniel Craig's final outing as the suave spyman, and the result is an epic conclusion to his story, filled to the brim with intense action, huge thrills, terrific performances, and an emotional story.
After successfully sending his arch-nemesis Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) to prison, James Bond (Daniel Craig) finally gets to spend some quality time with his love, Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). While on vacation, he's attacked by Spectre, and believes Madeleine had something to do with it, so he abandons her and goes into hiding for five years. He's brought out of retirement when a MI6 research facility is attacked and a mysterious bioweapon is stolen. Known as "Project Heracles," the weapon has the ability to kill its target without collateral damage, but in the wrong hands it could bring about mass genocide. Those hands belong to Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), who has connections with Bond's former flame Madeleine, and who wants to bring about a new world order. Bond is joined in his quest by a new 00 named Nomi (Lashana Lynch) along with old friends in order to prevent Safin's plan from coming to fruition, and along the way he faces the demons of his past and secrets that bubble to the surface.
Daniel Craig's stint as James Bond was met with some of the best rated films in the entire franchise, and "No Time to Die" will go down as one of the best as well, even if it falls short in a few categories. Serving as his swan song, Craig incorporates everything he has into the role, and leaves absolutely nothing on the floor when it comes to his performance. This Bond is the most vulnerable, the most dynamic, and the most selfless that has existed on screen, and Craig maneuvers his performance to fit the role at the time. Bond has never been so bold, so powerful, and so memorable than this film, and serves as a more-than-fitting sendoff for Craig's James Bond.
"No Time to Die" is easily Bond's biggest epic yet (at 163 minutes, it's also the longest in the franchise), and the film itself feels like an epic saga. There's several key components that make this feel like it, and each one fits perfectly into the completed puzzle. Linus Sandgren's cinematography is impeccable, offering lavish visuals that you don't normally see in a Bond movie. From the film's opening scene set against a snowy landscape to the rush of the action within the Matera roadways to the rhythmic action in Cuba and the creepy foggy forest, there's never a moment of pure awe-struck brilliance that you don't appreciate in this film.
The screenplay (co-written by director Fukunaga and three others) also delves deeper into Bond's psyche than most 007 films, as he's haunted by the past he tries to avoid but cannot escape from, as well as his overarching theme of never trusting anyone. It seemed that he finally found someone he could trust in Madeleine, but after Spectre launches a surprise attack, he thinks that she's responsible, resulting in him sending her away and returning to isolation. "No Time to Die" really focuses on past mistakes and how they continually affect the person in the present, as Bond must again turn to Madeleine to help find Safin, and learns that he might have made a mistake in not trusting the woman he thought he once loved. The action is polished, professionally shot, and filled with tension and edge-of-your-seat thrills. Matera's opening sequence is one of the best in the entire series, and each action beat never fails to deliver the same excitement. From the pas-de-deux sequence in Cuba to the foggy forest car chase and the final battle on an island, each one is expertly shot, performed, and choreographed.
The only downside to the film comes with the side performances and certain parts of the story. Craig pulls out all the stops and if the Academy Awards were more on par with popular opinion, he would earn a Best Actor nomination for his role, but it'll never happen. Aside from Craig, the only real standout performance is from Lea Seydoux as Madeleine, a woman who's multi-layered in her secrets and although she shows deep love for Bond, she also keeps to herself and keeps her secrets close to the vest that leads to the two splitting apart. If Jeffrey Wright and Ana de Armas (who co-starred with Craig in "Knives Out") had bigger roles, they would've also been very entertaining, but sadly their roles were very quick.
Aside from that, all the ancillary characters just seem to exist in one form or another. Rami Malek embodies the generic Bond villain who doesn't physically appear until more than halfway into the movie and who's motives are murky at best, as he monologues with a deep accent about philosophical issues. Christoph Waltz does his best Hannibal Lecter impersonation for the scant time he's on screen. Mainstays Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris and Ralph Fiennes have little more to do than serve as plot devices.
Yet the biggest head scratcher comes with Lashana Lynch's Nomi, who apparently takes the mantle of 00 after Bond retired. There was much debate in the years before "No Time to Die" was supposed to be released back in 2019 (curse you, Covid) with how James Bond was a sexist character who used women for his own means and often slept around (which, to their credit, is mostly true), and then they announced that Lashana Lynch (who was best known for playing Maria Rambeau in "Captain Marvel") was going to be playing the next 00, and the general public wasn't having it. They seemed to want to recast Bond as a woman in order to appease those who claimed he was a sexist figure, but ultimately it didn't seem to be the case - it was worse. Instead of having any sort of story or personality of her own, Nomi was merely around for the action and served nothing more than that, apart from providing some humorous quips at Bond's expense. She was great in the action scenes, but other than that it seemed she was shoe-horned in to appease those who felt Bond was too sexist. In the end, she didn't leave any indelible mark.
Yet set against those small misgivings, "No Time to Die" truly shined because it was Daniel Craig's vehicle, and he handled the steering wheel as perfectly as NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. He proved that he was the actor to bring Bond back from the brink of extinction, and since 2006 he's entertained audiences around the world with his deeply profound performance of a character otherwise written as almost a caricature. To that end, Craig left an indelible legacy in the Bond franchise that'll place him among the highest pantheon of Bond performers to ever grace the big screen, and will leave the next Bond huge shoes to fill.
Having re-invented James Bond for a new generation, Daniel Craig embodied the super spy throughout five films, and "No Time to Die" was the epitome of a proper send-off, cementing his performance as one of the greatest in the franchise and offering an epic tale of deceit, deception, romance, action, and legacy.
The Score: A+
After successfully sending his arch-nemesis Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) to prison, James Bond (Daniel Craig) finally gets to spend some quality time with his love, Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). While on vacation, he's attacked by Spectre, and believes Madeleine had something to do with it, so he abandons her and goes into hiding for five years. He's brought out of retirement when a MI6 research facility is attacked and a mysterious bioweapon is stolen. Known as "Project Heracles," the weapon has the ability to kill its target without collateral damage, but in the wrong hands it could bring about mass genocide. Those hands belong to Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), who has connections with Bond's former flame Madeleine, and who wants to bring about a new world order. Bond is joined in his quest by a new 00 named Nomi (Lashana Lynch) along with old friends in order to prevent Safin's plan from coming to fruition, and along the way he faces the demons of his past and secrets that bubble to the surface.
Daniel Craig's stint as James Bond was met with some of the best rated films in the entire franchise, and "No Time to Die" will go down as one of the best as well, even if it falls short in a few categories. Serving as his swan song, Craig incorporates everything he has into the role, and leaves absolutely nothing on the floor when it comes to his performance. This Bond is the most vulnerable, the most dynamic, and the most selfless that has existed on screen, and Craig maneuvers his performance to fit the role at the time. Bond has never been so bold, so powerful, and so memorable than this film, and serves as a more-than-fitting sendoff for Craig's James Bond.
"No Time to Die" is easily Bond's biggest epic yet (at 163 minutes, it's also the longest in the franchise), and the film itself feels like an epic saga. There's several key components that make this feel like it, and each one fits perfectly into the completed puzzle. Linus Sandgren's cinematography is impeccable, offering lavish visuals that you don't normally see in a Bond movie. From the film's opening scene set against a snowy landscape to the rush of the action within the Matera roadways to the rhythmic action in Cuba and the creepy foggy forest, there's never a moment of pure awe-struck brilliance that you don't appreciate in this film.
The screenplay (co-written by director Fukunaga and three others) also delves deeper into Bond's psyche than most 007 films, as he's haunted by the past he tries to avoid but cannot escape from, as well as his overarching theme of never trusting anyone. It seemed that he finally found someone he could trust in Madeleine, but after Spectre launches a surprise attack, he thinks that she's responsible, resulting in him sending her away and returning to isolation. "No Time to Die" really focuses on past mistakes and how they continually affect the person in the present, as Bond must again turn to Madeleine to help find Safin, and learns that he might have made a mistake in not trusting the woman he thought he once loved. The action is polished, professionally shot, and filled with tension and edge-of-your-seat thrills. Matera's opening sequence is one of the best in the entire series, and each action beat never fails to deliver the same excitement. From the pas-de-deux sequence in Cuba to the foggy forest car chase and the final battle on an island, each one is expertly shot, performed, and choreographed.
The only downside to the film comes with the side performances and certain parts of the story. Craig pulls out all the stops and if the Academy Awards were more on par with popular opinion, he would earn a Best Actor nomination for his role, but it'll never happen. Aside from Craig, the only real standout performance is from Lea Seydoux as Madeleine, a woman who's multi-layered in her secrets and although she shows deep love for Bond, she also keeps to herself and keeps her secrets close to the vest that leads to the two splitting apart. If Jeffrey Wright and Ana de Armas (who co-starred with Craig in "Knives Out") had bigger roles, they would've also been very entertaining, but sadly their roles were very quick.
Aside from that, all the ancillary characters just seem to exist in one form or another. Rami Malek embodies the generic Bond villain who doesn't physically appear until more than halfway into the movie and who's motives are murky at best, as he monologues with a deep accent about philosophical issues. Christoph Waltz does his best Hannibal Lecter impersonation for the scant time he's on screen. Mainstays Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris and Ralph Fiennes have little more to do than serve as plot devices.
Yet the biggest head scratcher comes with Lashana Lynch's Nomi, who apparently takes the mantle of 00 after Bond retired. There was much debate in the years before "No Time to Die" was supposed to be released back in 2019 (curse you, Covid) with how James Bond was a sexist character who used women for his own means and often slept around (which, to their credit, is mostly true), and then they announced that Lashana Lynch (who was best known for playing Maria Rambeau in "Captain Marvel") was going to be playing the next 00, and the general public wasn't having it. They seemed to want to recast Bond as a woman in order to appease those who claimed he was a sexist figure, but ultimately it didn't seem to be the case - it was worse. Instead of having any sort of story or personality of her own, Nomi was merely around for the action and served nothing more than that, apart from providing some humorous quips at Bond's expense. She was great in the action scenes, but other than that it seemed she was shoe-horned in to appease those who felt Bond was too sexist. In the end, she didn't leave any indelible mark.
Yet set against those small misgivings, "No Time to Die" truly shined because it was Daniel Craig's vehicle, and he handled the steering wheel as perfectly as NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. He proved that he was the actor to bring Bond back from the brink of extinction, and since 2006 he's entertained audiences around the world with his deeply profound performance of a character otherwise written as almost a caricature. To that end, Craig left an indelible legacy in the Bond franchise that'll place him among the highest pantheon of Bond performers to ever grace the big screen, and will leave the next Bond huge shoes to fill.
Having re-invented James Bond for a new generation, Daniel Craig embodied the super spy throughout five films, and "No Time to Die" was the epitome of a proper send-off, cementing his performance as one of the greatest in the franchise and offering an epic tale of deceit, deception, romance, action, and legacy.
The Score: A+
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