No Time to Die (2021)
No Time to Die
- 3.5/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥.5
- Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
- Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge
- Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch et al.
- Where to find it: In Cinemas Now
 |
| No Copyright Infringement Intended |
James Bond has been a cinematic mainstay for almost 60
years. In that time he’s been portrayed by six people, most recently Daniel
Craig who’s come back to see if he can send his time in the role off with a
bang.
The film initially forgoes the traditional opening action
set-piece that almost every other Bond film goes for, opening with an almost
slasher movie-style scene, as a mysterious masked figure stalks a mother and child
in the 1990s. This quickly opens up to a more traditional bond pre-credits
sequence, picking up from shortly after the end of Spectre with an extended
scene in which Daniel Craig’s Bond visits Vesper Lynd’s grave in Matera
alongside Lea Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann. This predictably leads to an
assassination attempt and an extended chase scene. Bond blames Madeleine,
leading to them splitting, and Bond goes off to enjoy retirement alone. Five
years later Felix Leiter visits with the offer of one last job, leading to Bond
being plunged back into the world of spies meeting with a wide range of
characters old and new.
Some of these characters are welcome additions. Lashana
Lynch puts in a solid performance as Nomi, the new 007 in MI6, an agent who
proves herself more than a match for Bond throughout the runtime. Elsewhere Ana
de Amas almost steals the show with a fun, if brief, role as Paloma, an
associate agent of Felix who teams up with Bond to infiltrate a SPECTRE party.
Elsewhere Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, and Naomi Harris all return as Bond
staples Q, M, and Moneypenny respectively, putting in fittingly fun
performances, although Harris does feel underused. Jeffrey Wright as Felix
Leiter is another welcome return, but I would argue the film tells us what
great friends he and Bond are rather than showing us.
A feature of the Craig-era Bond films is that each follows
on from the earlier ones. While this has some advantages in terms of telling a
larger story, it does prevent the films from standing out effectively on their
own. Throughout No Time to Die people talk about various characters or events
from past films, relying on these for plot developments. While I’m sure many
people enjoy this, I would argue it hinders the film’s ability to stand on its
own as Bond films used to do.
Beyond these links to the past the film’s plot is fairly
standard Bond fair; a chemical weapon (well, the film calls them nanobots, but
I’d rather pretend otherwise) that kills based on specific DNA codes has been
stolen with the CIA and MI6 both working to recover it before it can be used
for nefarious purposes. Along the way are the expected double-crosses and
twists. Rami Malek as Saffin is the culprit, a man with a cool look and an even
cooler island hideout but muddled and unclear motivations and a lack of any particular
interesting mannerisms or indeed a strong personality. I also find Lea
Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann to be fairly uninteresting. Perhaps she’s just
overshadowed by those around her, but I just don’t find her compelling in the
same way I do for many of the other characters.
Fortunately, despite this relatively off the shelf plot, uninspired
villain, and boring love interest, somehow No Time to Die manages to be
thoroughly entertaining for the vast majority of its runtime perhaps through
the sheer force of will of Daniel Craig, who manages to prove once again why
he’s the best Bond we’ve had so far, or perhaps simply through its constant
barrage of exciting action, and a series of fun interactions between its large,
diverse and interesting cast of characters culminating in an emotional climax
that’s pure classic Bond at its best. So sure, those not into Bond before
aren’t likely to be won over; this is Bond by the books and not quite at its
best; but it’s not trying to win new fans, it’s succeeding at giving an
entertaining and emotionally satisfying romp for existing fans.
Comments
Post a Comment