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| Daniel Craig a.k.a. James Bond has turned left on this poster for Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die |
James Bond has retired from MI6 to work for CIA and live more leisurely. But when old pal Felix Leiter urges Bond to return to locate a kidnapped scientist with a potentially world-threatening bio-weapon, he picks up the baton yet again.
No Time to Die is written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade (Casino Royale (2006), both), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag (2016-19)) and great Californian filmmaker, co-writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre (2009)). It is the 25th in the Bond franchise and star Daniel Craig's (Saint-Ex (1996)) 5th and last turn as the British spy.
Expectations have run sky-high for this film, the most eagerly anticipated major release that has been pushed out several times by the China Virus pandemic, arriving unusually long 6 years since Bond's last outing in Spectre (2015).
Unfortunately there's much to regret about the film, although many (critics included) seem to be so starved for a major theatrical delivery that they are bulldozing over its many weaknesses. The longest Bond film to date, the film may be said to be this egregiously long because it takes a regular Bond film and then slaps a drama on top of it. Any Bond movie is to be evaluated against the legacy going before it, and how it ranks according to franchise-specific metrics. This film had a troubled production (read below for details) and attempts to mosey out of many 007 traditions and do something new, even as it does very traditional things in the directly following scene.
SPOILER The opening scenes are a long, unusual backstory that's not about Bond, which is unheard of. Then followed by romantic drama scenes and then finally the action-packed sensation that is the traditional Bond opening scene. This naturally takes a while, since it is essentially three opening scenarios instead of just one. (Spectre had a terrific, vivid action-packed Mexico City-set opening sensation of the traditional breed back in 2015.) Billie Eilish's opening credit title song is perhaps the worst ever created for a Bond film; slow, unmelodious and depressing, a song few if any will ever want to listen to outside of the film experience, playing to traditionally stylish credits.
The filmmakers obviously want to try to clean up their franchise and embrace the times, which may very well result in an unrecognizable Bond the next time around. SPOILER In this chapter, Bond is deeply in love with the same woman from the previous film, played by Léa Seydoux (Midnight in Paris (2011)), who has given birth to their daughter, (another first). So now family man Bond collaborates with three young women agents, including Lashana Lynch (Powder Room (2013)), who by the way has taken over his 007 agent number, and gay tech and gadget expert Q in his world peace efforts. This is getting very, very far indeed from the glamorous, escapist, violence and sex-based male fantasy that Ian Fleming originally created with the Bond character and universe. My patience for this 'modernization' (or rather, liberal scrubbing) of the 007 universe is thinning fast.
Craig is terrifically watchable as usual, and among the supporting cast David Dencik (Gentlemen (2014)) injects humor into almost every second he is on-screen as the kidnapped scientist Obruchev, and Jeffrey Wright (Hold the Dark (2018)) is warm as Leiter, but no-one else really makes interesting turns. No Time to Die is over-long by three quarters of an hour to an hour, depending on how hard you look at it. This is fatal. It isn't so much edited as it is allowing excesses in different directions, resulting in a film with five villains (besides Dencik and Billy Magnussen (The Big Short (2015)), there's Christoph Waltz (She (2001)), Dali Benssalah (A Faithful Man (2018)) and Rami Malek (Papillon (2017)), all disfigured) and countless long dialog scenes, most of them not good enough to justify their portions of the film.
There are thankfully still rousing action scenes and stunts that pull one from the stupor of these problems and raise the pulse for the best periods of No Time to Die, but this is still a Bond film that belongs with the lowest-rated third portion of the large body of Bond work. SPOILER Worst of all, however, may be the completely horrible ending, in which Bond gets blown up on the bio-weapon island, a new first that is completely out of tune with the entire Bond fantasy and legacy and seems a desperate ploy from filmmakers that have seen Superman die in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and gone, 'we can do that too'. It isn't dramatically satisfying, because it disregards the entire Fleming-created fantasy universe (and its fans), and revitalizing 007 with a new actor after this can almost only go wrong after these many missteps in No Time to Die, as it will either alienate original fans even more or anger the left-leaning howling choir, who seemingly won't rest happily before a lesbian, Muslim, African 007 solves the climate crisis as Bond, (while raising a litter of multi-colored kids). Take it or (rather) leave it.
Related posts:
Bond franchise: Spectre (2015) - Mendes' second Bond delivers
Skyfall (2012) - Mendes elevates a slickly produced modern Bond to thrilling heights
Die Another Day (2002) - Tamahori makes a thrilling, grand piece of Bond escapism
GoldenEye (1995) - Brosnan arrives in Campbell's dumb Bond mess
A View to a Kill (1985) or, Once a Gentleman, Always a Gentleman!
For Your Eyes Only (1981) - Glen debuts with wacky, action-packed Roger Moore Bond
Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Connery's last Bond adventure is a colorful romp
Goldfinger (1964) - The 007 template gets perfected in fabulously entertaining third spectacle
From Russia with Love (1963) - Several remarkable elements make Young's 2nd Bond an enduring classic
Dr. No (1962) - Bond # 1 is one attractive package
Cary Joji Fukunaga: True Detective - season 1 (2014) - Darkness probed somewhat shallowly in strong crime show with Harrelson in one of his career's best performances (co-creator)
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 301 mil. $
Box office: 460.4 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[No Time to Die premiered 28 September (London, England and Switzerland) and runs 163 minutes. John Hodge and Danny Boyle were hired to write and direct the film but left due to creative differences in 2018, delaying the production. Craig was reportedly paid 25 mil. $ for his performance. It was he who requested the Waller-Bridge be hired to rewrite the script and add to its female characters and humor. Shooting took place from March - December 2019 in Norway, Jamaica, England, including London, Scotland, Italy and the Faroe Islands. Composer Dan Romer was replaced with Hans Zimmer due to creative differences during post production, the first time this has ever happened on a Bond film. The first of three release moves due to the China Virus pandemic cost 66 mil. $ additionally lost on marketing. Each month after that reportedly incurred another 1 mil. $ in interest charges. The massive costs led MGM to negotiate with Apple and Netflix about selling the film to them for VoD, but their 600-850 mil. $ asking price was too steep for the companies, who were reportedly offering no more than 400 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 55.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell to #2 in its 2nd weekend and has grossed 111.7 mil. $ to date. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are the UK, remarkable not far behind the US with 94.2 mil. $ and Germany with 46.2 mil. $. The film is opening in China 29 October and in Australia 11 November. It will need to gross at least 300 mil. $ more in order to go in the black. Fukunaga is returning with 3 episodes of miniseries Masters of the Air. Craig returns in Knives Out 2 (2022). No Time to Die is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of No Time to Die?
