No Time to Die *** ( 2021, Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas) – Movie Review

No Time to Die is the 25th film in the James Bond series and Daniel Craig’s final outing in the franchise. It feels like the end of an era, finally. There is a statement at the end of the closing credits ‘James Bond will return’ but No Time to Die seems like the right moment to stop. They have spent a vast amount of money, care and trouble on it, obviously, some of it wisely, some of it well, but not all of it shows fully on screen.

It is all very slick and efficient, coldly so, and though overlong (two hours, 43 minutes) and over-expensive ($250,000,000), it does the job. It’s a bit nervy, and a bit unsettled, but it is compelling. It’s an unputdownable page-turner. Like with a trash pulp book, you don’t want to stop till it’s done. But then it’s over, and the climax feels wrong, leaving a poor taste in the mouth, and after all that hard work too. It looks like they were gong for some much classier and posher. But that has evaded them.

Daniel Craig is fine, doing some acting as well as action, a tad grim and grizzled, but then it’s been a long hard ride for him since Casino Royale (2006). Bond is old, tired and weary. He’s retired. He’s lost his sense of humour. Oh, that’s right, he never really had one. Not while Daniel Craig was 007 anyway. Not even a sly sense of humour. He’s humourless. Like the film. No light and shade.

The romantic side of the movie, connected with Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine, provides most of Craig’s acting chances. It’s a shame then this is the dullest part for the movie. But then it would be. This isn’t the Bond character of the books. This is a soppy Bond collapsed for the love of a probably duplicitous woman. He is acting like a lovesick teenager, not a ruthless killer. Craig has said that the film is ‘about relationships and family’. That’s no good at all. It’s a spy film! Léa Seydoux returns from Spectre (2015) with the new film’s largest support role. She’s good too. Luckily so. She’s got a needy baby girl in tow. And this slows things down dreadfully.

No Time to Die starts with a bang. The usual one, sort of. After the MGM and Universal Pictures logos appear and The James Bond theme can be heard, the gun-barrel sequence is silver, lacks the blood, and opens up into the film’s first scene. Then the there’s about half an hour of back story in Italy till the opening titles, and the film begins for real five years later. A bits messy this.

Then Bond, who’s retired to Jamaica, is approached by his old CIA buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), asking for help  in tracking down kidnapped scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), who has developed M’s Project Heracles, a bio-weapon containing nanobots that infect like a virus on touch and are coded to an individual’s DNA. Bond then encounters Nomi (Lashana Lynch) and finds she has succeeded him 007.

The ensuing plot is both far-fetched and unpersuasive. There’s so much flash, bang, wallop, that you are not supposed to notice how thin and ridiculous it is. Admittedly, it’s a like an old Bond movie plot, but from one of the less good ones of the Seventies, when Ian Fleming had been left far behind.

Nevertheless, with plenty of action, you go with it. Then it starts to hit a huge rock as it begins to kill off iconic characters. This is always a sign of script desperation, searching for importance and significance, but ending up an own goal. It’s No Time to Die but apparently the title is ironic. How crazy is that? Not cool at all.

Ben Whishaw gets plenty to do as Q, the writers having tweaked the character’s role significantly from mere Quartermaster to tech genius. He does it well too. There’s plenty of opportunity of mug, but Ben is way too classy for that. Q is revealed to be gay, but so what? Rami Malek is the main villain as Lyutsifer Saffin. He’s very arch, silky and campy, not at all actually villainous, not credibly so anyway. Bond also gets to meet old Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who is in a UK jail, and they have a bit of a Lecter-Starling thing going on. It’s okay, but not much to write home about. Cuban actress Ana de Armas’s CIA agent Paloma is definitely a Bond girl, excellent, sexy and kick-ass. Craig picked  her after working with her on Knives Out (2019) and that was a good call.

Bond eventually gets to HQ in London in some weak scenes. Ralph Fiennes seems strangely subdued as M; Naomie Harris has nothing to do as Moneypenny; Rory Kinnear hasn’t much to do as M’s sidekick Tanner, the chief of staff. Lashana Lynch’s Nomi isn’t quite as compelling as she should be. Billy Magnussen’s CIA smiley-boy Logan Ash seems like from another film, but he’s quite lively.

Then suddenly we’re in Norway, and then in some 007-style Japanese fantasy island. Safin is hiding out in his HQ in a Second World War base on an island between Japan and Russia. This is where the trouble really starts. The film entirely loses it in the last quarter of an hour. You could just skip this bit and go home reasonably satisfied. For all the globe-trotting and location work, No Time to Die never seems to settle anywhere or get the best out of its locations. The Italy, London and Scotland work is too rushed and too insignificant. It might just as well all have been shot in Pinewood studios, with lots of blue screen and CGI.

Hans Zimmer’s score is only just serviceable. It’s the Bond theme played endlessly in riffs for two hours and a quarter. Billie Eilish’s theme song (music by Finneas O’Connell, lyrics by Billie Eilish) is fairly poor, totally unmemorable. By contrast, ‘We Have all the Time in the World’ (music by John Barry, lyrics by Hal David), performed by Louis Armstrong, is a masterwork, and of course so is Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme.

What does it need? Sharper editing, some recasting, and a light script overhaul. Plus more style, more daring, more fun, more action, more tension, more credibility, and more panache. It has all these, but just not enough. But then again it is compelling. It’s a page-turner. Daniel Craig is fine, Léa Seydoux is good, Ben Whishaw does it well and Ana de Armas is excellent. Probably that’s as much as you could ask from Bond 25.

They are reusing an old title. No Time to Die is a 1958 British war film with Victor Mature, Leo Genn, Bonar Colleano and Anthony Newley, produced by Albert Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond film series.

It is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

No Time to Die had its world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 28 September 2021, and was released in UK cinemas on 30 September 2021.

Also Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015).

Derek Winnert 2021 Movie Review

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com