No Time to Die is the final James Bond film that will star Daniel Craig and this time he has been in retirement with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) since the end of 2015’s Spectre but the disappearance of a Russian scientist with ties to the mysterious Safin (Rami Malek) sees Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) recruit Bond to go and save him but he will also have to deal with a new 007 (Lashana Lynch) and the return of Blofeld (Christoph Waltz.)
No Time to Die was not only my most anticipated film of 2021 but also the very first film to delay its release date due to the pandemic and this delay hurt me the most as I’m a huge James Bond fan (Timothy Dalton is my personal favourite 007 and it still pains me that the antics of Qintex and Christopher Skase cost him his early 90s films) but could this film deliver the goods or be another long delayed film that smells of shelf stink.
Most thankfully this movie is terrific and easily my favourite Daniel Craig film after Casino Royale, Cari Joji Fukunaga who took over this movie when Danny Boyle left the project does a fantastic job directing this film and first I have to start with the opening on the Ice with Rami’s villain and that face mask it has this It/Halloween vibe to it that not only was far scarier than anything in Halloween Kills but also made me wish Fukunaga had directed IT Chapter One as originally planned.
In fact parts of this film have a real horror vibe to them and it works very well as do the action sequences which are some of the best I’ve seen in a long time, the opening car chase with the DB5 is so so good and like a good Star Wars battle scene there is nothing quite like a good James Bond car chase and speaking of cars seeing the Aston Martin Volante from the Living Daylights was quite the thrill and I was flipping out inside my head in my cinema seat.
Also the films production design is really good, the island lair of Safin in particular has that vintage Ken Adam bigness to it but left to rust for 40 or 50 odd years out at sea and it looked fantastic on the big cinema screen and also the cast as a whole are really good.
Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris are always good value as the MI6 regulars and I hope they continue on in those roles when a new Bond is introduced, Lashana Lynch was good as the new 007 though Ana De Armas is the best newcomer here as Paloma a rookie agent and her chemistry with Craig from Knives Out hasn’t changed one bit, they’ve still got it.
As for Rami Malek I think he is good in the film but it feels like he gets the short end of the stick when it comes to characters in this script, he does his best and has some memorable moments but it feels like a lot of his stuff was cut from the final film perhaps to defuse the endless “He’s really playing Dr No” fan theories that went on and on before the film was endlessly delayed.
But there is one big problem I have with this (well 2 problems mainly) but this first one is a biggy and its Madeleine Swann, again; Now don’t get me wrong Lea Seydoux is a wonderful actress but here not only does she have little to no chemistry with Craig but everytime she came on screen I didn’t care about her at all I just wanted her to leave and given that the emotional core of this film hinges so much on that relationship it drags the film as a whole down from being a grand slam home run for me.
The other problem is how Spectre is handled, this organisation is a cornerstone of the Bond franchise and lengthy legal battles have been waged over the years regarding the rights to this group and its leader Blofeld and to see both this movie and the last one use them both so poorly is a personal disappointment for me especially as they were where both Dr. Claw and MAD from Inspector Gadget came from.
And so that was No Time to Die and it’s a great end to a polarising run in Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond but he went out his way and on his terms and happily he went out on a high note despite some missteps, 4 out of 5.
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