No Time to Die Review

October 11, 2021 at 9:06pm
By Jason Stettner

The last of Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond finds the agent in the sweet bliss of retirement. That is, until Spectre comes into the fold and 007 throws himself into the abyss for a number of years. He leaves behind the love of his life, Madeleine (Lea Seqdoux). Time then passes, new agents have entered the field and this relic of the past doesn’t have a whole lot going on. That’s when a sudden appearance from an old pal Felix (Jeffrey Wright) brings Bond back into the fold.

It’s a film that’s dipped in nostalgia as it relies heavily on older themes and references to bring deeper emotive elements into play. If you’ve been following these films this will feel like a conclusive moment, while also playing outside the lines of any Bond movie that has come before it. I was a bit disappointed in that regard as while it’s fun at times it doesn’t quite hit the signature beat and goes off the rails towards the latter half of the run time.

It was really weird as it seemed to be setting something really interesting up and leaves me wondering what they were aiming to do or well say here. The villain, Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) appears quite menacing but I really didn’t quite understand his motivations. It seemed to wrap around his family’s fate, but then the greater picture came across as sort of random. I wasn’t exactly sure about the motivations and some of his decisions seemed random.

The whole late portion of the movie seemed a bit off with some choices that perplexed me. The villain left then sort of reappeared and gave up hostages weirdly easily. Then there was a random garden, it was weird. There were some emotional peaks setup and ultimately I felt a bit disheartened by how everything came to go. It makes being the secret agent; or well that fantasy I suppose, not a fun one.

This was actually fairly impressive in terms of how it was shot. It was a much more viscerally focused combative experience. Tight moments where even Bond was partially disarmed while still mowing down folks that came in his way. At the same time, it didn’t quite have the striking moments we’re used to in terms of larger settings. It was brief moments at various locales that didn’t quite show off the beauty of these spots.

It felt as though the action didn’t quite take a hold of these spots, despite them looking gorgeous cinematography wise. It’s quite hard to really describe, but the previous films really made the places feel special instead of brief visiting points. I mention this as we got a painfully minimal moment with Paloma (Ana de Armas) who was a fun stand out in this. I actually hope with future entries, assuming they keep going with the current supporting group that she would be included.

If you are a fan of that supporting crew they’re all here with M (Ralph Fiennes) feeling a bit off but Q (Ben Whishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) were great. There was also the special new agent taking over, Nomi (Lashana Lynch) who came across as confident yet not necessarily focal to the plot which was disappointing. There was more potential there with that character, it’s like she was just there to follow leads set by Bond. There was a moment near the end where she really could have helped out and instead was sent awkwardly away.

The Conclusion

No Time to Die had a strong start with deeper emotional beats, but it withered out with a villain that made little to no sense and in having a clear motivation to bring nothing but misery to the double o. I don’t know if I’m just stuck in enjoying the previous entries, but there’s something about how this concludes that just feels wrong.

It’s some weird sort of extra layering to the already overly complex Spectre story line that was randomly pulled together in the last film. This is a, but there’s more! sort of situation that just felt off. I wasn’t sure why the villain was motivated past the halfway point of the movie or even how he fully fit in. It felt as though there were rewrites or reshoots as it feels painfully disjointed.

There was some sort of regeneration thing that never gets touched upon, it’s just so weird as he was creepily cool as a villain but so empty. It’s like they cut a good chunk of his story out. Then there’s the strange doomsday type setup, that was just silly in how they know nothing about it but it’s there forever. So weird, it just didn’t make any sense and you’ll know what I mean when you watch the film.

The action was neat, with good call backs throughout. It just felt wrong though in how it all wrapped up and ultimately I felt disappointed. It has all of these right points that feel exciting, with nostalgia being dipped heavily and when you look past that it’s really not much of a Bond film. It definitely has changed things for the series going forward, and I look forward to being introduced to a new lead actor as more entries are always something to be excited about. The music segment was fantastic, just wanted to note that as well.

No Time to Die Review at Theater with AVX Viewing

Rating Overall: 5.5