No Time to Die

So before I start I just want to say that this review will contain spoilers. Don’t read it if you haven’t seen the movie.

‘No Time to Die’ is the 5th and final movie of Daniel Craig’s series of Bond films. Whatever James Bond movie we see in future will be played by another actor. I hadn’t expected Craig to do 5 because he’s always made a point of not wanting to overstay his welcome and he has been in the role for 15 years now. I was thinking back in 2006 he would maybe do a trilogy of movies but I’m glad that we got more because he is one of the best Bonds and his Bond films are going to be very tough to top.

So what was my reaction to the movie? I almost balled my f***ing eyes out at the end and again when they played the “We have all the time in the World” theme music. This a banging great Bond movie and almost my favorite Bond movie. It’s just behind ‘Casino Royale‘ in my ranking and just for the record I wasn’t all that much of a fan of ‘Skyfall‘. The only thing I will say about the movie that could be a plus or a minus depending which way you look at it, is that it’s a very James Bond movie. It still has the big baddie, the big global threat, the giant action set pieces. There’s already so much going on that I didn’t really think it needed Rami Malek as a new Bond baddie. I feel his presence is more in service of giving us that ole tried and trusted formula.

Lashana Lynch plays the new 007 and I quite like her. I wouldn’t mind seeing more films with her as 007. I was also impressed that the film makers resisted having Bond seduce some woman for a one night stand and actually made the female characters more than just beautiful women.

The opening of the movie is perhaps one of the best Bond openings ever, not just in terms of action but in terms of the emotional roller coaster Bond finds himself going through. It sets up the rest of the movie perfectly and leaves you thinking that if this is just the opening of the movie then what comes after the opening credits must be amazing. And it is, it really is. There’s nothing to disappoint here, there’s no regret about how they decided to do this final Daniel Craig movie. It’s is a beautiful send off. A spy action movie that had me shaking, trying to compose myself.

As for the ending I was 50/50 on if they would actually do it. I did feel that with this rebooted and darker James Bond franchise that it would be a possibility and logically a smart move if they did it. To see Bond literally give his all. I had expected a similar move at the end of ‘ The Dark Knight Rises‘ but they didn’t follow all the way through with Batman’s ultimate fate. In fact, I thought they were going to do the same here by having Bond show up at the end. If you remember the blood chip tracker that shows the vital signs of Bond was injected into him before he went on his final mission and they could track him on the computer screen and they made note which symbol on the screen was Bond’s symbol. I was thinking why are they making a point of that? I thought they were going to have that symbol disappear but then at the very end of the movie pop up again on a computer screen and going “ah ha! fooled you! We just wanted to drink your sweet tears and keep our character going because he’s Bond, he’s invincible right?” Boy oh boy did they get me with that one, they were two steps ahead of me and sent me down a different rabbit hole. So that’s another thing that really impressed me with the movie.

Where does all this go from here? Who the heck knows. Obviously the franchise will be rebooted but how will they do it? There’s no way in the world you can follow the previous 5 Bond movies by just doing more of the same. You have to reinvent it and make it a new thing. So how? Go back to the character’s roots, put him in the 1950s like he was in the books? He can still be Bond and still have the car and gadgets. I dunno. But I bet Christopher Nolan has ideas, as does Danny Boyle.

Favorite Quote: “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” – M