NO TIME TO DIE — Fruitcake Enterprises

Directing: B
Acting: B
Writing: B-
Cinematography: B+
Editing: B-

It’s been interesting seeing the evolution of Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond—the longest-running Bond in the official Eon Productions franchise films, at 15 years, albeit far from the highest number of times he appeared as Bond. There were only five films released in that time: Casino Royale (2006); Quantum of Solace (2008); Skyfall (2012); Spectre (2015) and, now, No Time to Die (2021). This one would have made Craig’s run a total of 14 years had it been released in 2020 as originally planned, but, we all know how that went.

Daniel Craig was 38 years old when he started these movies. Not super young, but young enough to be perfectly plausible—and hot—in the role of a newbie British spy in this reboot of a then-44-year-old franchise. Hitting the reset button in this way, in a way different from the four other times the role had been recast, revitalized the character in a way not done in decades.

And then, as Daniel Craig’s Bond went on, the movies gradually shifted back to many of the typical characteristics of the “Bond brand.” With the introduction of Q (Ben Wishaw) in Skyfall, we once again began to see high-tech gadgets thrown in as fun plot devices. By the time we got to Spectre, ironically the worst of the Craig films right after the best (Skyfall), both of them directed by Sam Mendes, we even found ourselves re-inroduced to Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), the villain who appeared so many times in the original Sean Connery Bond films that he grew truly tiresome.

Waltz as Blofeld returns again here, albeit as a secondary villain this time—someone just as threatened by the new villain as Bond himself. Something Blofeld and this new villain, Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), have in common though, is a calm but cold and sinister demeanor, someone more calculating than violent, allowing their many henchmen to carry out the physical attacks (and, of course, in most cases get quickly dispatched). No Time to Die brings with it another throwback to old-school Bond henchmen, with a gimmicky villainous characteristic: here one of them, referred to as “Cyclops” (Dali Benssalah), has an artifical eye. The eye evidently also serves as his boss’s spycam.

All this is to say, No Time to Die is a quintessential James Bond film, with all the expected trappings. To its credit, a key difference from early films is that the women serve as more than window dressing and are given agency—and this installment features no fewer than three key women characters meant to be vital to the plot (with varying degrees of success). My favorite would have to be Lashana Lynch, whose casting as Nomi, the 007 agent hired to replace Bon in the five years he’s been retired, could be considered a bit of a troll. After all the speculation about the next James Bond being a Black man, it’s a bit delicious to see a Black woman cast as 007 before Daniel Craig is even officially out the door.

We also get a great sequence with Ana de Armas as Paloma, a rookie but very capable agent assisting Bond in one elaborate sequence in which we get to see her and Bond kicking a whole lot of ass together. The sequence is far from vital to the story overall, and cutting it completely would have tightened up this movie’s truly bloated, record-length 163-minute run time, But, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch, so I guess I can’t complain.

The third woman is Bond’s love interest, Madeleine, played by Léa Seydoux, as she had also done in Spectre. It’s a bit disappointing that the “Spectre organization” plays so significantly into the plot yet again here, as it made for the dumbest premise of all the Daniel Craig films once already. The premise of No Time to Die isn’t quite as silly, but it’s silly enough. The villainous Lyutsifer Safin is out for revenge against the man who killed his entire family, a Spectre member who happens to be Madeline’s father. As part of this revenge, he’s manufacturing “nanobots” to be deployed around the world and trigger deadly viruses by programming them for specific genetic makeups. Once again, the plot is needlessly convoluted.

Ultimately, among the five Daniel Craig films, I would say No Time to Die ranks right in the center, after Skyfall and Casino Royale. It fulfills its service to fans, but it’s hardly essential viewing to casual moviegoers, even if it still qualifies as a fitting sendoff to this version of Bond, who is visibly older, less capable, and more tired. Daniel Craig is 53 years old now. Granted, that’s six years younger than Tom Cruise, who still shows no signs of slowing down in the Mission: Impossible franchise. But, Tom Cruise is not normal. He’s probably an alien.

I will say that No Time to Die features an end for Bond’s story in this iteration that is genuinely surprising, if not outright shocking. It’s a compelling choice, if nothing else. As is the seemingly throwaway line that seems to suggest Ben Wishaw’s Q is actually gay, which did not go unappreciated, although it would still have been nice for the clarity there to be more overt.

All that aside, No Time to Die takes its time, something I usually appreciate, but here it was often more than necessary. The film is decent but not good enough to justify its excessive length. It still has its fun moments, such as when Bond suddenly needs to shoot his gun toward the camera in a tub-shaped subterranean tunnel, directly mirroring the classic shot that has long started all of these movies, with him in a tuxedo with a white background. Much of No Time to Die is very nicely shot, its cinematography being easily its best element. Otherwise, it’s a serviceable last hurrah for arguably the best James Bond actor since Sean Connery, and honestly my own favorite of them all. But, all good things must end, and 15 years were more than enough. Inevitably, a few years down the line, yet another Bond will get cast, and I for one do hope it’s not just another white guy. Either way, I’ll be curious to see how the franchise is reset once again.

Overall: B