OnScreen Review: "No Time To Die"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
The travails of No Time To Die, the 25th film in the James Bond franchise, have been emblematic of the struggles of the film industry during the Covid pandemic. Delayed from a 2019 release due to a change in directors from Danny Boyle to Cary Joji Fukunaga to an early 2020 release, its release was pushed back to the November of 2020 and then eventually to October 2021. Six years after the disappointing Spectre, we finally get Daniel Craig’s swan song as 007. Has it been worth the wait?
Bond’s journey during the Daniel Craig era has been an interesting one as the character moved into the 21st century. At the end of Pierce Brosnan’s run as Bond and prior to Craig’s debut in Casino Royale, I remember criticism saying that Bond had been made obsolete, surpassed by the likes of Jason Bourne. Craig himself was lambasted as the casting choice. The studio clearly took this criticism as a challenge to accept and Craig has been more than equal to the task over his now five films as the iconic character. Though the quality of the films has been up and down (Casino Royale and Skyfall are genuinely two of the best Bond films ever made; Quantum of Solace and Spectre are more uneven), it’s hard to argue that Daniel Craig has not redefined the character and established himself as the best Bond; really, it’s him or Connery.
Aside from two introductory scenes, the film is set roughly five years after the events of Spectre and finds Bond, shockingly, retired. It’s not long before he is pulled back into his old profession and we see all the familiar faces and a few new ones. This essentially makes No Time To Die a “one last job” movie, which has a certain inherent appeal in its own right. He is pulled into a job by his CIA friend Felix (Jeffrey Wright) in Cuba where Craig gets to reunite with his Knives Out co-star Ana de Armas, who manages to steal the show for the brief time she is on screen. Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw return to their respective roles as M, Moneypenny, and Q, respectively. And Lea Seydoux and Christoph Waltz reprise their previous roles as Madeline and Blofeld, with Seydoux far more involved in the story. A strong addition to the cast is Lashana Lynch as Bond’s replacement in the MI6 ranks.
As with most Bond films, there is a global threat to be neutralized. This time around, it is in the mysterious visage of Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). He has a fascination with poisons and toxins and is supposed to be cold and calculating and someone who sees himself as something of a hero in the grand scheme of things and a kind of reflection of Bond. Frankly, I found Safin barely compelling as a villain and a missed opportunity. His scheme is grand, but his motives are a bit too convoluted and he is not a memorable Bond villain when all is said and done. Also, there’s a bit too much reliance on the amorphous biotechnology at the center of the plot.
For Craig’s final performance, No Time To Die is seemingly about one thing above all, and that is closing out Craig’s run definitively. An imperative over Craig’s five outings as Bond is to tell a cohesive, self-contained story. The need for continuity from one Bond to another had not been a high priority with the Bond films. There was no reset button on the character, just the actor who portrayed him. Beginning with Casino Royale and carrying through to No Time To Die, there has been a notable shift, with more carryover from film to film and more of the personal side of James Bond explored than in previous installments.
I think this shift in Bond storytelling has been influenced by the reliance and profitability of how so many other franchises tell their stories now. Some people will see No Time To Die and say that it is bold because it goes places that previous Bond films have never taken the character before, in at least two ways in particular. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I did not find these choices to be particularly brave or original. In fact, they reminded me of two superhero movies, Superman Returns and The Dark Knight Rises to varying degrees.
Most people, even its biggest fans, would probably say that No Time To Die probably ranks 3rd behind Skyfall and Casino Royale but ahead Quantum of Solace and Spectre, with the only question being which pairing does it fall closer to. I’m inclined to rank it closer to latter rather than the former. It’s a stylish and well-polished Bond film, and none of the Daniel Craig films have been outright bad, but I’m hard pressed to call this a satisfying conclusion to Daniel Craig’s tenure as a grittier, flesh and blood Bond.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars