No Time To Die

No Time To Die (finally) comes to us almost From Daniel Craig (and the gang) With Love as the postscript to his tenure that almost never was (I guess he’s now learned to Never Say Never Again.)

Craig’s no doubt been an exceptional Bond but his films have often been muddled. Like Brosnan before him, another excellent Bond whose films suffered by reflecting the Spectre of the noughties' obsession with lacklustre CGI and silly future tech’, Craig’s films have had to survive alongside the current crop of exceptional thriller franchises and advancements in how films are seen on the big screen. The Bournes, Mission Impossibles etc. often appearing like yardsticks this franchise has had its eyes firmly on rather than focusing on itself.

Whilst Casino Royale is a masterpiece (and a serious contender for the best ever in the franchise) Quantum, Skyfall and Spectre have tried too hard to be all things to all people. The World Is Not Enough for them it seems and, with their call-backs and attempts at continuity, they’ve shot for the Moon(raker) and just missed a little something.

Whilst all no doubt better after a rewatch, it’s difficult to know how this era will be recalled in years to come. Brosnan’s films have largely aged poorly (with the exception of Goldeneye) but it’s hard to know what will happen to Craigs. Visually, they’re stunning and there’s a degree of timelessness about the style, but the somewhat scattergun plots mark them down, a somewhat inevitable offshoot of running out of Ian Fleming-penned material.

Onto the matter at hand though and No Time To Die is, no doubt, the send off that befits this run, for good or for ill. If you like the style of this era then this gives you another solid entry of great set pieces, high emotion and laughs.

It suffers from the same pratfall as the last three though: a seemingly threatening villain with a strong backstory killed off a little too easily and with muddled motivation to put it kindly. Everyone knows everyone in this film’s universe and world-ending plots are seemingly put into place solely for the purpose of revenge. Despite the heaving runtime and top level acting talent delivering the lines, it’s another entry where the core plotline leaves a lot to be desired. It’s often difficult to rationalise why things are happening.

It’s a shame as, by dropping Blofeld and the Spectre organisation into the last film as the great ‘reason behind it all’ and firmly establishing the Craig films as one ‘universe’, this was a great opportunity to ramp up the threat level and have at least one film end with the villain ‘winning’, especially when then subsequently releasing a proper sequel like this is (a Spectre rewatch is certainly recommended before venturing to the cinema.) Instead, after blowing up Blofeld’s base before we even got to establish what it did or what he wanted, we’re told an even bigger threat is on hand but, once again, we don’t exactly get a chance here to feel out what they want or why. Rami Malek does what he can with the character, and the opening scene is excellent, brilliantly calling back to what could have been a throwaway comment by Madeleine Swann in the last film, but they gave us Blofeld and cast the great Christoph Waltz, it seems a shame to have not done more with him.

The action beats are very strong though (and, brilliantly, the majority of what you’ve seen in the trailer all happens pre-credits) and Bond gets some help in different scenes with exceptional turns from his Knives Out co-star Ana De Armas, the returning Jeffrey Wright and Lashana Lynch’s new 00 agent. This freshens things up immensely and gives new dynamic to the set pieces. It also enables a few more Bond quips and humour to come back into the script (remember, comedy as part of the action was something these films were doing way before Marvel made it their trademark.)

Away from the big budget stuff, we get a movie that in some scenes feels nothing like a Bond movie at all which is actually to its credit here. This era has introduced a proper character arc to a previously impenetrable set of characteristics and, whilst it won’t be to all tastes, it delivers on that here. In fact, the ending gifts the film an extra star.

The franchise can now be properly shaken, not stirred, which is very much needed but what happens next (remakes?! Nothing at all?!) is to think about Another Day. Daniel Craig’s tenure On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at once attempted to do something new, whilst also resetting the series and paying homage to the past and, despite its flaws, deserves immense credit for driving audiences in their droves back into cinema seats. No Time To Die doesn’t top his first outing but is, nonetheless, a solid and essential addition to this great franchise. Lift your martinis.

4 stars ****