Going into No Time to Die (2021), I was immediately biased because my family and I share a few things in common with this film's director, Cary Joji Fukunaga. My father's name is Joji, and Mr. Fukunaga is a Japanese American who studied at UCSC, as am I. With that little bit of trivia out of the way, on with the review.
It has been a long but overall satisfying journey with Daniel Craig as James Bond. After the tremendous highs of Skyfall (2012), I was hyped out of my mind for Craig and director Sam Mendes' return for the direct follow-up, Spectre (2015). However, despite some enjoyable character moments from Bond and his new love interest, Madeleine Swann (played by Léa Seydoux), and several attempts at creating a side plot that illustrated the changing world around MI6 in the fallout of Skyfall, that film's goodwill was undermined by an overwhelming lack of storytelling innovation and an incredibly underwhelming use and reveal of Christoph Waltz's character as iconic Bond villain Ernst Stravo Blofeld.
With Spectre being an even-numbered entry in Craig's Bond films, I was curious whether his fifth and final entry would continue the tradition of the odd-numbered entries being the good ones or break from that tradition by being a disappointment. First off, I was surprised that Seydoux and Waltz would be reprising their roles for No Time to Die, for I was not expecting too much from Craig's final 007 film aside from Billie Eilish's hauntingly beautiful theme song. This movie was famously supposed to come out on April 10th, 2020, until the Covid-19 pandemic brought the entire world to a standstill. It was also one of the first major productions to have its theatrical release postponed until further notice. Almost a year-and-a-half later, No Time to Die finally made its way into theaters on October 8th, 2021, given improved public health conditions in the United States. What are my thoughts on No Time to Die? To my relief, it's a good one. This film is The Dark Knight Rises (2012) of the James Bond franchise; not as great as Casino Royale (2006) or Skyfall, but a solid conclusion nonetheless.
No Time to Die follows Bond, who has retired from active duty since five years after the events of the previous movie, as he is approached by his old friend, CIA operative Felix Leiter (played by Jeffrey Wright), for one last mission: to find and rescue a kidnapped scientist to prevent a lethal bioweapon containing nanotech from the mysterious terrorist leader Lyutsifer Safin (played by Rami Malek), who plans on unleashing it on the world's population like a virus (sound familiar?). Soon, new alliances are made, old secrets are revealed, action scenes unfold, fancy gadgets are put to use, and sacrifices are made, with a vodka martini, "shaken, not stirred" to spare.
Craig shines yet again as James Bond, with perhaps his best performance of all the films he has done. Here, he is probably the most human and openly vulnerable to those around him, which illustrates how far he has come from the skilled yet reckless rookie that he once was in Casino Royale. Bond's vulnerability and willingness to finally make peace with his past is made possible by Seydoux's character of Madeliene, a psychiatrist. Seydoux has significantly more material to work with this time around, for not only does her character of Madeliene feel more fleshed out, but she also plays an integral part in why the film's more emotional scenes work so well. Lashana Lynch's character of Nomi, MI6's new "00" agent assigned the 007 number after Bond's retirement, is a welcome addition to the franchise, and the banter she shares with Bond is light-hearted, and I would love to see more of her character. Ana de Armas appears in this film as Paloma, a freshman CIA agent. Her screen time is limited to her introduction, some fun character interactions between her and Bond, and a marvelous team-up involving a shootout; she is a show-stealer who also has the potential to reappear in a future movie. The rest of the returning cast members like Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, and Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny are fun to see all together again, albeit for possibly the last time.
On the technical side, this movie's cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, whose previous projects include Damien Chazelle's La La Land (2016) and First Man (2018), shot No Time to Die on analog film stock with Super Panavision 70 spherical lenses and 65mm IMAX film cameras for specific action sequences to significant effect. This gives the picture a wonderfully filmic aesthetic with a warmer and more diverse color palette and resembles a 1960s Todd-AO epic, which is perfectly appropriate for this kind of movie. The action scenes are not only emotionally invested but beautifully shot and directed. At the beginning of the film, there is a white-knuckled car chase in Matera, Italy, containing shades of Casino Royale's firey intensity and Skyfall's character-driven action. There is also another action sequence set within a mist-covered forest that is not only well-shot and highly atmospheric in tone but shares some resemblance to the speeder chase in Return of the Jedi (1983) in terms of the booby traps Bond sets up. Hans Zimmer's musical score is excellent, for he pays noticeable homage to legendary Bond film composer John Barry with his use of strings and instrumental rendition of Louis Armstrong's theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), "We Have All the Time in the World". As a relatively new fan of classic Bond, this brought a big smile to my face.
However, the two villains keep this movie from being the perfect send-off to Craig's Bond. Not that they are terrible, but they are certainly not as morally complex as Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre from Casino Royale or as menacing as Javier Bardem's Silva from Skyfall. Malek's Safin has a slimy and creepy presence to him, with his motivations driven by his past with Madeleine's family (her father was Mr. White (played by Jesper Christensen) from Casino Royale), and revenge mission to end not only Spectre and the world make him a compelling adversary for Bond. However, he doesn't have enough screen time for the audience to see what he is fully capable of. On the other hand, Waltz's Blofeld returns in a cameo that is merely there to have closure from his introduction in Spectre. In all honesty, his appearance felt both unnecessary and necessary at the same time.
In conclusion, No Time to Die delivers on most of the fronts. Minor spoiler alert ahead, but the last few seconds of the end credits show the text "James Bond Will Return". Without giving anything away, I was both relieved and curious who could follow up Daniel Craig as the next James Bond, given how strong his portrayal of 007 has been for the past fifteen years. You can say that I was literally shaken and emotionally stirred as I bid my favorite Bond actor farewell.
Final Score: 8 out of 10
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