| My rating | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critics | Audience | Critics | Audience | |
| 8.5/10 | 70/100 | 7.6/10 | 84% | 89% |
It’s been six years since we last saw James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) riding into the sunset at the end of Spectre, and it’s that way that we find them at the beginning of No Time To Die. As indicated in the many trailers leading up to this movie, audiences might need to catch up on Spectre before watching No Time To Die to fully understand all characters.
Heavily advertised as Daniel Craig’s 5th and final time as James Bond, No Time To Die never really lets the audience catch their breath and the 163min of running time go by quicker than expected.
The pre-title sequence, with scenes from Madeleine’s childhood described in Spectre, and then with the couple in love in Italy already show us that this will be the most emotional James Bond movie to date.
After a spectacular car chase in the streets of Matera, Bond and Madeleine part ways and Billie Eillish’s title song starts to play, giving us the tone of the movie.
Five years later, we see Bond retired in Jamaica, catching some fish, and living a relatively quiet life. That’s when CIA Agent and long-time friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) shows up and pulls him back into action.
Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas are the new additions to the cast and are delightful to watch. No doubt writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a big influence in their dialogue. Their characters’ interaction with Bond are funny and fresh – very different than what would have happen between Bond and any woman in the past.
The plot itself is not the best one, involving a biological weapon that targets specific DNAs, but it’s enough to bring back Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) and to introduce Safin (Rami Malek) to the roster of Bond villains. Even if his backstory is not the most original one, his actions threatening a specific character in the third act of the movie are definitely going to make the audience’s skin crawl.
Cary Fukunaga, who replaced Danny Boyle as the director, makes bold choices and includes some beautiful scenes, not to mention the wonderful cinematography by Linus Sandgren.
Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro are in charge of the score, and they deliver some intense sounds that are Zimmer’s signature, as well as some very dramatic tunes towards the third act. They also pay tribute to previous movies, with callbacks to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Casino Royale, and Skyfall.
No Time To Die borrows more from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service than just some notes. There is a famous line from that movie that is said here – twice, albeit in slightly different ways. The song choice for the end credits is also telling that the producers clearly want to make this film as poignant as that one from over 50 years ago.
It is Daniel Craig’s performance, however, that truly make this Bond movie different than its predecessors. As discussed in our previous analysis of his 4 other films, he portrays a James Bond that bleeds, falls in love, and cries. In other words, he has a soul after all, as opposed to being just an assassin who drinks martinis while working. In No Time To Die, he takes it to another level, giving us a James Bond that is vulnerable and deeply hurt.
While No Time To Die is not the best of his five movies, it is by far the one that evokes the most emotions from the audience and it will very likely be debated for years to come. After many delays, No Time To Die is finally coming out on October 8th in the U.S. and on September 30th in many other countries, including the U.K.
