Review: "No Time to Die"

This new iteration of the master spy James Bond has been a favorite among critics and fans as it has been a strong action series but also a wonderful darker tale on the character. Daniel Craig has played the character for five films now with No Time To Die and firmly placed himself as one of the best to do so. It is also crazy to think about how he is now the longest-tenured actor to play the role, spanning fifteen years. Here we are after Craig had said, "I'd rather slit my wrists than play the character again." The Bond films with Craig as the lead have often been a culture shock to the character but with No Time To Die there is more of a focus on the character rather than explosions. In a sense, it is a smaller more intimate film which makes the ending all the more impactful knowing we won't be seeing this iteration anymore. This film may have after all benefitted from a change in director from Sam Mendes to Cary Joji Fukunaga and it may have just rejuvented Daniel Craig in the role who was clearly exhausted with it after Spectre.

The plot takes five years after Spectre and we find the titular character in Italy enjoying the company of the woman he loves in Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). He finds himself in paradise but still looking over his shoulder for any potential threats and when he finally lets his guard down as he begins to finally let go of his love of Vesper, the woman he loved from the very first Bond film of this series, he is once more attacked by the criminal syndicate he had thought he put an end to in Spectre. This sends him out of retirement and paradise and back into the fold of being a master spy despite being out of MI6. An old friend in Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) asks him for help on a mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist only turns out to be a far more treacherous mission than expected, leading him on the trail of a mysterious new villain with a dangerous new technology that has the potential to be catastrophic.

While the plot at times feels a bit ho-hum and unoriginal, the focus on Bond remains ever-present and Craig shines brighter in the role in this film more so than previous. This film had a tall task in that it had a lot of boxes to check off. It had to be an entertaining film on its own merit, provide a sense of finality for the iconic character while also hinting at a potential future within this universe. All of this while also fixing the mess that the previous film left in its wake. It is however impressive how this film enhances the one before it in Spectre, which was widely regarded as a disappointment for the series. Craig and Fukunaga do a great job with what they are handed. Fukunaga does a fantastic job with the action scenes through his robust direction of frenzied action and I am positive that the Aston Martin scene, in the beginning, will be a fan favorite for some time. However, it is hard to not think that at times the film is being played too safe and too familiar from the first frame to last and the stakes, just feel kind of flat. It could just be fatigue as we have seen this character now for five films play out familiar beats but again even through these complaints it still manages to be a strong action film on its own.

Every Bond film always has two staples throughout all of them. A strong and memorable villain and this film had plenty of hype behind it knowing that the talented actor, Rami Malek would be playing the next villain. Knowing that I think there was an expectation that he'd be the typical menace for Bond to face off with, twirling their mustache and spitting in the face of everything that Bond holds dear but instead Malek's Safin is very subdued. So much so in fact that at times you can forget he is there as much of his machinations are off-screen. However, he does have a rather frightening introduction in the opening frames of the film that was a truly spectacular and beautiful start. That introduction also played well to the strengths of Fukunaga as a director has he fairs well in suspense.

Fukunaga also added two new "Bond girls", another staple of the franchise, and one, in particular, he made with the intention of casting Ana de Armas in the role. Palomo is a highlight of the film even though she only appears in one scene throughout. She has a great rapport with Craig's Bond but is also completely capable on her own. The other new character is Nomi, which seems to be the character who may focus on going forward in the universe. She is an intriguing character but not nearly as fun as Palomo. Again, overall the film is a fun spy action romp that clearly favored the emotional growth and finality of the character of Bond but it didn't feel wildly different from anything we have seen in the past. Craig, Fukunaga, and Malek all do a great job in their roles and help elevate the movie quite a bit but I am also sure the finale will be a mixed bag for some.