No Time To Die — Review Thread

This is the most I've enjoyed a Bond movie since The World is Not Enough.

Wow, they sure as hell went for it, didn’t they?

“I can’t wait for all the revisionist history towards Quantum of Solace.”

— Dracula

Yea only showing we can make is an 8pm Dolby, gonna be there until at least 11.

I'm not complaining.... Yet.

After tying the time in years for longest gap between Bond films due to the coronavirus, Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond is finally here in No Time to Die. Craig's tenure as Bond has largely been defined as the franchise's much needed jolt back to life after the dismal Die Another Day (in my opinion the worst of the entire franchise) and with updating the character to the 21st century. The gadgets are still there, as are the beautiful women, exotic locales, and villains, but watching Casino Royale you could sense a shift into the more grounded (and more progressive) territory that MGM was pivoting their greatest intellectual property towards. It's been a huge success, with Craig being widely praised as the best Bond since Sean Connery and his top films, Casino Royale and Skyfall, ranking at the top of the franchise's offerings alongside From Russia with Love and Goldfinger. But as all Bond aficionados know, no one stays in the role forever, and with Craig signaling that this would be his last time playing the iconic role, anticipation for No Time to Die was very high indeed. And while you can certainly applaud director Cary Joji Fukunaga (the first American director of the franchise) and the producers for having Craig depart in what will likely go down as the most controversial Bond since On Her Majesty's Secret Service, not all of the bold decisions they elect to go with work, and ultimately what feels like a proper send off for Craig becomes encumbered by the lengthy running time and a villain that can't stand toe-to-toe with Bond whatsoever. I hate to call this the Last Jedi of the Craig-era, but this is going to be a very polarizing film especially amongst Bond fans and may leave plenty wishing that Spectre had been the farewell tour, not this one.

After beginning with a flashback cold opening (another first for the franchise) that's a pretty obvious omen for what's to come later, we get to James Bond (Daniel Craig) retired in Italy with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), looking to spend the rest of his days in peace. This peace is of course brusquely interrupted when Spectre attacks him, and we flash forward another five years to find that a bioweapon capable of releasing a virus that targets specific DNA is stolen from a London laboratory. Bond springs back into action for the sort of "final rodeo" we've grown accustomed to, but there are a few changes along the way. First off, there's a new 007 (Lashana Lynch) who offers up some coy remarks and fun lines towards her predecessor but ultimately just feels shoehorned into the mix and doesn't offer much. Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) is also back and recruits Bond to track the scientist who helped this new organization steal the bioweapon, but his role is brief and controversial as well. For the first half of the film, No Time to Die largely works, offering up the fun action sequences and globetrotting one has come to expect from the series. The Craig era films have certainly nailed down the winks at the audience, knowing how to deliver the franchise tropes we expect but coming up with creative and playful ways of doing it. No Time to Die is no exception, and for all the bold decisions that don't ultimately work you can tell that the filmmakers have a great appreciation for what's been laid before them.

Where the movie stops working is in the second half, when the villain Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) comes into play. He's using the bioweapon to enact revenge on Spectre, who used a chemical attack to kill his parents when he was young and also badly scar his face. He's supposedly operating as a sort of Zen-like figure, basking in an actual Zen garden, sitting on a tatami mat, and drinking green tea, but his actions of selling this weapon to the highest bidder contradict this of course. But it is an odd goal, and one that doesn't seem to really line up with anything. This isn't a villain on some sort of misguided "peace creating with the wrong intention" sort of mission, but just a bland and poorly defined one. There have far more forgettable villains in the franchise than memorable ones, but Safin is worse because he just doesn't have any logic behind his actions at all. Malek attempts to play the character as this imposingly quiet madman, but fails to both intrigue or frighten and also comes into the action far too late to have much of an impact by the time he and Bond come face-to-face. It all sets up a third act that really stumbles, succumbing to its own reliance on its contrived bioweapon rules that feel as hastily slapped together as Bond's final act of selflessness. For an era that's been defined as being one of innovation and modernity, No Time to Die feels like it's lacking in originality and tries to stuff several elements into its near three hour running time without either breaking the mold or giving us a farewell to these characters. It's not the excitingly fresh appeal of Casino Royale. It's not the character study of Skyfall. It's not even the showdown with a worthy adversary of Spectre. Ultimately, No Time to Die will go down as perhaps the boldest Bond film ever for the choices it makes, but that's a bit of a misnomer because the film really doesn't offer a whole lot we haven't seen done better plenty of times in the long-running franchise outside of its ending. This is James Bond, and there have been plenty of mediocre and even downright bad entries, and among them No Time to Die is fine enough and probably even better. But for the Daniel Craig era, this is a disappointing and lackluster end for the actor who deserved so much better.

6/10

You did better than I did


Also, between this and Bohemian Rhapsody, does Rami Malek actually suck?

lol

Will write in more detail later but...

Legit laughed.

I've been itching to rewatch Tomorrow Never Dies. No particularly reason, I just think it's good.

The Chimera virus didn't target individuals or families or ethnic groups, it was mostly just notable for having a dormant period before it went into effect.  This particular virus sounded more like a mix of FoxDie from Metal Gear Solid and the titular virus from the PS1 game Syphon Filter...