After multiple delays as a result of the pandemic, No Time to Die finally comes to cinemas, giving us the final chapter in Daniel Craig‘s era as James Bond.
At the beginning of No Time to Die, Bond (Craig) has left active service and is living a quiet, simple life in Jamaica. However, his peace is soon interrupted by the arrival of his old CIA friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who asks him for help, leading Bond on the hunt for a mysterious villain named Safin (Rami Malek), who is armed with a very dangerous biological weapon.
No Time to Die, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, didn’t blow me away but it is a solid movie that ticks all the boxes you would expect from a Bond film, so diehard fans will be pleased to know that it’ll deliver what they like from the franchise, while others might feel deflated that it rarely goes beyond that and largely sticks to the classic tried-and-tested Bond formula. That being said, the film is more emotional than other instalments – rightly so, given that it’s Craig’s final outing – and also has a surprising amount of quips and laughs, which could be down to co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s influence on the script.
This film is 2 hours 43 minutes and it definitely didn’t need to be that long, however, the runtime flew by and I didn’t feel like I’d been watching it for as long as I had. It takes a while to get going as there are a lot of plot threads to set up and characters to establish but we’re off to the races once all that introductory material is done. The storyline is interesting and gripping enough but it is also convoluted and muddled and more bloated and complex than it needed to be. There are a lot of characters and the majority of them are given a decent amount of screen time so it soon adds up.
It wouldn’t be Bond without the action sequences and there are some very cool car chases and stunt setpieces, although the gunfights do get a bit boring. It also ticks the globe-trotting box, with the story hopping from countries like Italy, Norway, Chile and, of course, England, and brings back the classic villain’s lab/lair, one of several nostalgic callbacks to the earlier movies. The cinematography is impressive and there were so many beautiful shots and I liked how Billie Eilish‘s theme is used throughout to highlight emotional moments.
The film’s main focus is Bond’s relationship with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) and so it hinges upon their central performances and they deliver the goods. I don’t particularly buy their chemistry but they give emotionally charged turns that may leave some viewers in tears. Craig is Bond at his most emotional and vulnerable as well as world-weary, with the spy seeming tired of the agent life.
Other notable performers were Ana de Armas as bubbly and kickass CIA agent Paloma, who steals her handful of scenes and is in it nowhere near enough. She deserved far more screentime and I kept hoping she’d come back. Elsewhere, Lashana Lynch held her own as Nomi and I can’t wait to see where the character goes, and it’s always a pleasure to see Ben Whishaw as the quirky Q.
The biggest letdown casting-wise was Malek, who was a weak villain. Safin was weird and creepy but not particularly threatening, so he pales in comparison to the likes of Blofeld and Raoul Silva. I don’t think it was completely his fault – it was a mixture of his performance and the script, which clearly didn’t know what to do with him in the second half.
No Time to Die may not be the strongest Craig outing (I’d rank it below Skyfall and Casino Royale) but is a solid and deserving send-off for Craig and proof that you can’t beat the cinematic experience.
In cinemas Thursday 30th September
