I have loved Daniel Craig’s era of Bond, especially the more gritty and grounded take. I was disappointed by his previous outing, Spectre (2016), but felt like it was a fine conclusion for his Bond. Therefore, I was genuinely surprised when it was announced that Craig would do one more Bond movie. So is this a great final outing for Craig or was it time for it to die?
Firstly, this is a way more satisfying conclusion than Spectre (2016). After watching this, I felt happy at how the story was treated and how James Bond was handled. On that note, I love how emotionally personal this story is for Bond which I haven’t felt since his first outing; Casino Royale (2006). It felt like there was an actual reason and personal stakes for Bond to be invested this time instead of it just being a mission. I also liked that the threat this time is bigger than any threat Bond faced before. It felt like it was a potential world scale disaster which is fitting for the final Craig movie. Some issues I had with Spectre (2016) was that the group itself didn’t feel menacing and that Bond’s relationship with Madeleine Swann was weak. No Time to Die (2021) does a good job rectifying these issues as Spectre feels more like a proper villainous group, while the relationship between Bond and Swann is an emotional core in this film
Additionally,
the action scenes in this film are great. Some memorable ones include a
stunning action sequence near the beginning, an awesome shoot out in
Cuba and a terrific one-take sequence near the end. It was clear that a
lot of effort was put into these action sequences and that there was an
effort to try and differentiate them from previous movies. There are
also a variety of different beautiful locations in this which leads to
some great cinematography. Furthermore, the returning actors are doing
the best acting we have seen from them so far and the new ones are all
great additions. Craig gives the most emotional and charismatic
performance as Bond ever. Craig’s performance as Bond is usually
stone-cold like an agent would be, with some exceptions in certain
scenes. Here we see him have some great banter and jokes that you
wouldn’t usually see from him but it surprisingly works. Yet despite
that, we also get to see Bond at his most emotionally vulnerable state
which is delivered wonderfully by Craig’s performance.
His conflict with new 007, Nomi played by Lashana Lynch, is also enjoyable to watch with both constantly making jabs at each other. I am glad Nomi isn’t just a “female bond/007” and has a distinct personality from Bond with a more no-nonsense and serious nature to her. I also enjoyed Ana de Armas as the new Bond girl, Paloma, who represents the classic gorgeous badass we have seen from previous Bond movies. She has such a fun bubbly personality and great chemistry with Bond. Plus her action scenes were great too which makes it such a shame that she is barely in this movie. If No Time to Die (2021) did one thing then it was making me want to see more of Nomi and Paloma. Rami Malek plays the villain Safin and he gives a very creepy and unsettling performance. Whenever he was on-screen he was able to pull his own.
Unfortunately,
the villain Safin isn’t in the movie much with Spectre being more of a
villain for the first half. It’s a shame as Rami is great but he doesn’t
have much of a presence until halfway in. Moreover, Safin motives are
incredibly vague and silly. He wants to kill millions of people just
because he is evil I guess. He also has a weird obsession with Madeleine
but it is never fully clear why exactly he wants her apart from some
vague ideas like family or like her. There is also 2 villainous
henchman. One with a cybernetic eye that is very forgettable if it
weren’t for the eye and another with a quirky personality but doesn’t
appear much. They are both not that great sadly and I wish one of them
was cut.
A central element in this film is a thing called “Nanobots” and it is as silly as it sounds. It is a MacGuffin that can do whatever stupid thing the plot needs it to do. It is so ridiculous that I question how this could exist in Craig’s grounded Bond universe. The Nanobots and the villains make this feel like the most cartoony of the Craig Bond movies which dampen the final outing a bit. The movie is also a bit too long at 2 hours 40 minutes. The pacing drops around the middle and there is a fair amount of moments where it is just exposition dumps. This film could have benefitted from cutting 10-15 minutes off the runtime. Legendary composer, Hans Zimmer, is the one who did the music score for No Time to Die (2021) which sounds like a match made in heaven. However, his score is so generic, plain and even forgettable as the music score lacks a lot of impacts that you would see in Hans Zimmer score for other movies.
Overall, No Time to Die is a wonderful final outing and tribute to Craig’s Bond. This is one of the most emotionally satisfying Bond entries ever in the series. It delivers on the emotional storytelling that I wanted and I can see people getting a little teary-eyed at this one. It truly is the end of the great Craig Bond era and it is nice to say that he has more good Bond movies than bad (unlike Pierce Brosnan). There is going to be a lot of pressure on the next Bond actor but whoever it is, I hope they give a unique take as Craig did for his Bond.
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