No time to die. A review

Daniel Craig’s often frustrating tenure as James Bond ends on a spectacular note with No Time to Die.

The oldest 007 began its tenure in 2006 with a full reboot at Casino Royale. Eon Productions’ plan to tie together each of the multi-year adventures into one comprehensive narrative was a risky break from the formula when they started it. For the previous five Bonds and 20 movies have been isolated from each other with only the tiniest plot elements going from movie to movie, allowing audiences to skip entire movies and come back when they want it. wanted without skipping a beat. The linking of Craig’s films has been far from seamless, but it more or less works for this film. The only downside to this movie is that you have to have seen the previous four Craig Bond’s for this movie to make sense.

Craig was still as impressive as a good, solid modern version of his character. Her Bond girl – Madeleine, played by French actress Léa Seydoux – is much better written than in the previous uneven and ultimately disappointing Bond film – Specter. Far from the bimbos produced by some of the worst Bond films; Madeleine is the best Bond girl in a decade and a half, since Eva Green’s Vespyr Lynd in 2006. She is certainly one of the two or three most fleshed out and human love interests in Bond canon, and one of the most relevant. for the field.

Rami Malek – of Mr. Robot and Bohemian Rhapsody – gives a solid and calmly unsettling performance as Lyutsifer Safin, the main villain. His villainous plan has echoes of the Coronavirus.

Whereas previous versions of M, Bond’s boss, were largely there to set up the plot from the start and tell Bond “good job” at the end; Ralph Fiennes’s version of the character continues Judi Dench’s model of being much more central to the plot, especially in the first act. Naomie Harris continues to be an excellent Moneypenny. Ben Wishaw is just as good Q and Rory Kinnear was as fantastic as Tanner, Mr.’s chief of staff.The editing, cinematography, stunts and action pieces were all state of the art and hard to come by. to repeat.

The rest of the supporting actors are generally excellent, although they come in and out of the movie a bit haphazardly. The primary and secondary minions were a bit written, and Bond’s two most capable allies got out of the movie way too quickly. Jeffrey Wright was solid in the role of Felix Leiter, his American counterpart, although he was largely excluded from the action.

The CIA agent who was in action was Paloma, played by Ana de Armas. De Armas previously starred with Craig in the movie Knives Out. Her character was written a bit incoherently, but de Armas is such a good actress that she was able to play both the action and the humor so charmingly that it didn’t really matter. It’s just a shame that, like Wright, his character walks away before the second act begins.

Lashana Lynch’s performance was left behind for a reason. A common complaint of the Bond film franchise is its stereotypical nature. A female 007 is a common “what if” fix and her character, Nomi, actually replaces Bond as 007 for part of the film. If you are skeptical that a female-008 can work, you should watch this movie for her performance. Like the other characters, Lynch’s stage appearances are very repetitive; but if anyone can shoot a fantastic 007 hen, it’s Lynch. She stood out with a performance just as solid as that of Craig or Seydoux and now that Craig’s version of Bond ends, it would be tragic if her character didn’t return; preferably with his own feature film.

Another thing this movie does well is the references and the pacing. Small bits of Bond’s previous eras are sprinkled effectively throughout – from the Jamaican sets of the first act, to the Dr. No-like lighting of the villain’s layer, to the Ralph Fiennes look. On his third outing as M, they gave him a haircut and crossover suit to make him look like Barnard Lee, the actor who played the first version of Bond during the Sean Connery era.

Craig has always been a phenomenal contemporary version of Bond. His Bond filmography has a quality model that is locked in where the quality or quality of the final film depended on the director, the editing, the writing and the strength of the villain. Craig’s Bond films – Quantum of Solace and Specter – rank as the worst and most disappointing Bond films, respectively. Its odd-numbered films – Casino Royale, Skyfall and This Movie – rank among the best, not just for Bond films, but the spy movie genre overall.

It’s hard to think of a better way to retire from being Bond. Of course, none of his predecessors knew how to bow out with such dignity.

Image Credit: imdb.com