James Bond is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica after leaving active service. However, his peace is short-lived as his old CIA friend, Felix Leiter, shows up and asks for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond on the trail of a mysterious villain who's armed with a dangerous new technology.
James Bond is back for one last shot, and during the seemingly everlasting rumours of the next Bond character, Daniel Craig stars in the latest, longly awaiting Bond film - ‘No Time to Die’. Obviously due to Covid, the film was delayed for a year so this has given the film plenty of time to build hype, and I was one of the lucky ones that managed to get release date tickets! Typically though, James Bond films are full of action, battles, women and fast cars, this film was no different, however roughly 3 hours later, I can say that I am very surprised by what I saw - the story transcends audiences across a multitude of locations and scenarios whilst introducing us to characters both old and new. The main question though - should you spend your hard-earned money on viewing this film? Here are my thoughts.
One of my favourite aspects of the Bond films is their immense attention to detail to the storylines and associated details such as villains. A key part of providing this feeling is the start of the film where Safin (Rami Malek) breaks into the home of Madeleine, kills her Mother and then seeks to kill her. Despite the fast paced, action heavy start to the film, what appealed to me most was actually something else, this eerie feeling to the film and the villain started off the film in the perfect way for me. Not only did it help set the feeling for the film and to provide it with an exciting start, but it also gave us a fantastic insight into the latest Bond villain, whilst also giving him an extremely creepy and mysterious vibe that lasted throughout the remainder of the film. For me, the best part about this film was the character roster because of the fantastic list of varying character types that we were introduced to.
Obviously the main character here is Bond, James Bond and whilst he does what he is best known for, it felt refreshing to see a somewhat new side to the character during the many scenes in the film. In this film, James is delivered as a character with panache, with the film showing us a variety of new sides to the character, including a romantic Bond, a uxorious Bond, a Bond who is unafraid of showing his feelings, like the old softie he’s turned out to be. What is especially interesting and well executed though is the manner in which Bond is portrayed here, I really like how the film executed the feeling of now/old school characters aswell, with a really stark focus on this between the varying characters in terms of their actions, relationships and conversations. I really liked this, because whilst it is fairly subtle, it helped to give a great feeling of Bond being a somewhat 'outsider' given his retirement and just generally helps to make the characters feel much more realistic and multi-dimensional.
Whilst the film has a lot of great performances in, namely from Léa Seydoux who provided a fantastic act as Madeleine, a standout performance from Rami Malek as Safin really helped to give the film some 'oomph' and style. As mentioned, his character was displayed as extremely creepy and eerie, but what made the character so impactful and exciting was the creepy essence surrounding the character. Additionally, it wasn't a film where the villain was 'trigger happy' and solved problems with gunfire, but the quirks and eerie personality of the character fitted in nicely with the storyline of the film through the essence of creepy plants and flowers. On the whole though, the wide character roster was good and whilst the large number of villains and characters did originally seem somewhat confusing, the film did an excellent job of unravelling the storyline and character motives well as the film progressed. Daniel Craig, Seydoux and Malek sell it very hard and you can see the pleasure everyone takes in this gigantic piece of ridiculously watchable entertainment.
Additionally though, I thoroughly enjoyed the unique personalities and impacts that additional characters had on the story too, primarily Valdo and Ernst. Whilst not in the driving seat of the film, characters such as these two had a hugely positive impact on the film for many reasons. Primarily though due to the fact that they added the typical 'crazy villain' feeling to the film, however they also added a uniquely strange feeling to the character roster by introducing new ideas, character types and personalities, all of which were exciting and intriguing to see when faced with other characters. For me though, whilst the instantly recognisable characters (Bond, M, Moneypenny, Q etc.) were good, these additional characters added a real sense of excitement to the film by offering a variety of personality and character types, helping to round off the character roster and provide something different and exciting for us.
Additionally though, I was impressed with the storyline of the film. Whilst initially I was somewhat apprehensive about the ~3 hour running time due to the nature of long films either being amazingly efficient at using this time wisely or just dragging on, the complex nature of the film seemed to offer enough to tide over this lengthy runtime. Whilst the film was generally exciting, what I found most impressive was the well executed flow and structure of the film, Bond films always involve travel across the globe however what appealed to me was how well these timely scenes were structured and transitioned between each other. For example prior to Bond travelling to Cuba, we hear a hint about travelling to Cuba which Bond dismisses, however after an impending shootout and action packed scene, we then see Bond change his mind after being somewhat forced into following the trail. This film is full of these types of scenes, where we follow Bond's story and trail of numerous, dangerous villains, and whilst these are nothing new, the manner in which the film structures and pieces these scenes together is great and helps to give the film a flow and sense of purpose.
The film is also not short on action in the slightest though, however what is refreshing is the fact that these aren't all shootout scenes or even fist combat, the inclusion of chemical warfare and experimentation adds a somewhat sadistic nature to the films action sequences. Whilst this isn't necessarily something new, the manner of how this is included alongside typical combat is impressive and helps to avoid the typical periodic, repetitive gunfights that we expect to see. That isn't to say that gunfights and the attributes of a Bond film are absent here though, the inclusion of the starting scene helps to essentially take us 'down memory lane' by reverting back to the old Bond where he is racing through narrow streets whilst being chased by a variety of gun wielding characters, only to unveil a set of insanely cool machine guns that pop out from the headlights. If you're here for the cool gadgets such as watches that overload power systems, cars with machine guns for headlights and car chases then there is definitely something here for you, but the transition between this and a 'newer Bond' is executed well, helping to offer audiences the best of both worlds!
As mentioned, the 3 hour running time was a concern for me, however I was really impressed with the amount of variety, excitement and progression that the film provided, offering a wide variety of themes. More importantly though, I found the entire film to be straightforward and somewhat simple to understand and follow - mainly through strong character interactions that got the balance of establishing unique characters with keeping characters useful absolutely right. The lengthy runtime may be enough to put some off, however this film is well put together and will be enjoyable for both fans of the Bond series (and gives a nod to them through hidden Easter eggs and references) and new fans to the series.
This film certainly isn't perfect though, and throughout the viewing, I encountered a number of issues and flaws that had an impact on my perception of the film. One of my main issues with the film relates to direction and an identity crisis, namely due to a wide variety of scenes throughout the film that either felt far too prolonged, out of place, or due to them just feeling a little confusing. For example, the Jamaica scenes aim to give an insight into Bond's current lifestyle and whilst they do have some purpose, they just feel so wasted, slow and directionless. Similarly to the scenes on the boat with Felix, this scene feels as though it could have offered so much more, but overall it just feels a little typical and boring to me.
Additionally, this movie introduces a new 007, this may seem exciting at first but this is sadly another waste, primarily because this new character feels like a bland filler character acting full of herself without a real purpose other than to annoy Bond. I mentioned that overall the acting and character roster was good, but the film left me confused as to how an exciting character such as Paloma was only given a few minutes to shine but Nomi (the 'new' 007) was directionless and given so much more time? This is what I mean when I mention that the film lacks a sense of a strong identity, where previous films such as SKyfall and Casino Royale exceed in their character roster being unique and purposeful, it feels as though too many are surplus to requirements here but that they have been added in to make up numbers?
Another one of my main issues with the film strangely relates to the films trailers, what's mind boggling to me is how they let a director put all the action in the trailer leaving nothing as a surprise. The trailers showed the main villains clearly, and bafflingly some of the key scene endings such as Bond's escape during the start of the film, forest shootouts and escapes - but primarily it took a lot of what makes the villains feel unique by giving them large slots in the trailers, ruining the mystery and suspense surrounding the villains in the film.
Overall, I would give this film an 8 out of 10. What's important to note though is the time and time again, Daniel Craig leaves it all on the set and this film is no different, in fact Craig is so good here that it really leaves me questioning, how can another Bond be as good as Craig's? The film definitely has some teething issues and a somewhat lack of identity but on the whole it delivers and brings what we have come to expect from a Bond film. It has the action and storyline that bring audiences back time and time again, and as mentioned, if you can stay away from being engrossed in the trailers and somewhat questionable side characters then this is definitely a great watch for all audiences.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!
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*Severe spoilers below*
What's worth mentioning (and I wanted to include this at the end of my review under a spoiler warning) is that I was impressed how Craig's version of Bond was killed off, it wasn't in combat as we may have expected, but executed with a real sense of emotion and action that help to summarise his long and extremely successful role of James Bond. What's equally as good though is the emotions of characters around him, and their reaction to his death - it feels as though it isn't just the death of a character, but the end of an era. I was anticipating him walking out of the rubble or escaping but I feel that even by Bond's levels that this would have been a long shot, and in the end I think that this ending sequence was the right way to end the era and the film.
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