REVIEW: "NO TIME TO DIE"


Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whinshaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffery Wright, Christoph Waltz and Ralph Fiennes.

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Date of Release: October 8th 2021

Plot: In the 25th installment of the franchise, Bond is called out of retirement to hunt for a missing scientist, which then leads him to a very dangerous adversary. 


This review is a bit late but considering the film in question is still making headlines since its premiere, perhaps not.  What most people have been grumbling about on social media was the ending , how ridiculous  and disappointing it was, plus a complaint from a former Bond girl (Britt Ekland, who played  Goodnight in The Man With the Golden Gun) how Bond being a Papa ruined the fantasy and making him less of an ‘untouchable.’

Let’s remember after Pierce Brosnan’s Bond tenure ended in Die another Day, the franchise was given a reboot, giving us a vulnerable and initially less experienced Bond.  He got his first heartbreak in Casino Royale, revenge in Quantum of Solace, his back story revealed in Skyfall and a new start at the end of Spectre. This Bond is NOT the Bond portrayed by the previous actors (except maybe Timothy Dalton); he bleeds, he feels, he’s vulnerable, he swears and  quick to anger. And while I respect Ms Ekland’s feelings, things have greatly changed since the late Roger Moore’s Bond tenure. Some might say Bond was a jackass to have treated Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) the way he did, but his experience with Vesper made him once bitten, twice shy and that just makes him more of a realistic character than the superman- like, wise cracking agent we’ve been used to for  over 50 years.


  

Bond and Madeleine share touching scenes, which is a lovely change from where Bond would just bed his Bond girl  in the middle of the story and at the end before the credits roll. The last time we’ve seen Bond obviously in love before Madeleine was with Vesper Lind (Eva Green) and back in the 60s  in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (George Lazenby in his sole turn as Bond) where he used the L word for the very first time to a Bond girl, Tracy Di Vincezo (played by Diana Rigg). 


 Madeleine saying little Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet) wasn't his was simply lame, we all know she was his daughter, even before Sarif said so. Madeleine herself is a very memorable Bond Girl; independent with quiet strength, traumatised by her sad past but had the courage to move on and love, AND protect her little girl. 

A  huge round applause to Daniel Craig (the first Bond actor to be a Bond film’s executive producer) for his mind blowing performance, this instalment was a satisfying conclusion to his tenure as Bond. Like Dalton before him (who was insultingly underrated), Craig was the  Bond as Ian Fleming described in the novels, however in No Time To Die,  has mellowed a bit since his ice cold, gritty start in Casino Royale. His retirement has domesticated him somewhat  and he’s living in quiet bliss with Madeline Shaw  after the events in Spectre, but we all know Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) isn’t done with him by a long shot. However, Blofeld is the secondary villain here, the actual villain being the sociopath, Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malik), a terrorist hell bent on making Madeline pay for the sins of her father, Mr White and bringing Spectre and the world to its knees. Blofeld is completely overshadowed by Safi (Rami Malik in a chilling performance) who is cold, hyper-intelligent and completely lacking empathy. 

Many reasons to love No Time to Die, especially by long time Bond fans; Billie Ellish’s score was in keeping with the film’s tone (regardless of the haters' comments),  the film drew elements from past Bond films AND from the original Bond novels for the first time in many years.

 For starters, there was the return of the gun barrel sequence before the opening scene and not at the end of the film since Casino Royale accompanied by Monty Norman’s James Bond theme. 

There was Bond telling Madeleine ‘we have all the time in the world’, as they take a romantic drive and at the film’s climax; a sentence Bond hasn’t uttered since On Her Majesty’s Service, and it was to his  wife, Tracy whose grave stone bear those words under her name (Bond visits her grave in  For Your Eyes Only)  and the use of Louie Armstrong’s song of the same name (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’s main theme) at the end credits. 

Five years after he puts Madeleine on the train because of  her supposed betrayal, Bond is living in Jamaica (the last time Bond was seen there was in the very first entry of the franchise back in 1962 and where Ian Fleming wrote most of the Bond novels). In No Time to Die, Blofeld doesn’t have Madeleine killed but he does drive her and Bond apart for five years and Bond retires, living in bitter solace in Jamaica until he’s recalled by Felix Leiter (Jeffery Wright) to help him find a missing scientist (David Dencik), whose big mouth later gets him into big trouble with the new 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch).

Lynch played the new agent very well, a self described over achiever who first clashes with Bond but then respects him enough to ask his old number be returned to him. Naomie Harris returns as Moneypenny and (once again) does not sigh after him, like her previous incarnations.  Q (Ben Whishaw) was the same agitated self  (with a glimpse into his personal life as a gay dude) and it’s a relief to know the actor is not planning to return in the next Bond film, he’s simply too young and annoying as the Quartermaster. 

Ralph Fiennes, (who could have been a great Bond himself)  was the M we’ve been waiting for years;  one that Bond spars  with and angrily challenges, instead of merely reporting to across his desk.  

Ana de Armas, who played Agent Paloma, Bond’s Cuban contact was a pleasant reminder of  Goodnight (Britt Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun), in addition to much  appreciated martial arts and shooting skills, a pity we didn't see more of her. And as for Logan Ash (played by Billy Magnussen) he was transparent from the start, calling himself  a fan of Bond and being overly cheerful for a CIA field agent. The scene were Bond kills him by letting a car fall on him (over Leiter’s death) somewhat mirrors in the scene in For Your Eyes Only, where Bond kicked a hanging car (with a killer in it) off a cliff  to avenge his Italian counterpart. 



The ending is not ridiculous as many people claim. Bond makes the ultimate sacrifice for his family and country  when the missile destroys Sarif’s garden, factory and island, with MI6 mourning him and Madeleine reminisces about him to Mathilde. It was Bond’s greatest hour, the final instalment or not.  The film borrows  story elements  from the 11th Bond novel,  You Only Live Twice, where Bond tracks Blofeld to Japan to avenge the death of his wife and finds him and his sidekick/wife Irma Bunt living a castle and running a ‘Garden of Death’ ( a garden full of poisonous plants),where people go to commit suicide, which the film adaptation (the 5th instalment of the franchise) did not cover. The close similarities: 

-Bond was  re-numbered when M decides to give him another chance after being careless and reckless on his missions, the reason being he was  mourning  Tracy,  who was shot on their wedding day nine months earlier. 

- Bond and Blofeld  have a physical duel, which ends with Bond killing him  with his bare hands in a violent rage,  before blowing up the castle.


However, Bond suffered  a head injury from the explosion and while the rest of the world, including MI6 believed him dead, an amnesiac Bond is living in Japan with his Japanese ally, Kissy Suzuki; who eventually becomes pregnant with his child but before she can tell him (hoping he would propose), Bond leaves for Russia after finding something in a newspaper page that might help him with his memory and resurfaces several months later  in The Man With The Golden Gun;  brainwashed by the KGB and attempts to assassinate M.   

Actual Bond fans would notice that if they’ve really been following all the novels and films from the start;  which  should show the complainers  where the writers are going with this.  With the promise below: 



expect to see Bond with a new face (the votes for who will play Bond next have already begun) and with amnesia. The ending was more than brilliant and paves the way for the next Bond actor, who we fans hope will do Ian Fleming and his living predecessors proud. We can’t wait for his return. TRAILER


Trivia

No Time To Die's opening scene is the first to begin with  a flashback and is the longest in the Bond franchise, running for over 23 minutes. 

This is Daniel Craig's fifth and final appearance as James Bond. 


Quotes:

Madeleine: Why would I betray you? 

Bond: We all have our secrets, we just didn't get to yours yet. 

Safin: Saving someone's life connects you to them forever, the same as taking it. They belong to you. 


                      


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