No Time To Die review

At long last we have the final James Bond film starring Daniel Craig. No Time To Die was the very first movie to get delayed by COVID. Originally set to open last April, we finally get it a full year and a half later. It's the longest delayed movie, although once Top Gun 2 gets here that one will probably take the title. 

Worth the wait? Sure. NTTD is a good sendoff for Craig. It has lots of good action. It hits all the beats. It welcomes back supporting characters you like, and introduces some good new ones.

But as with a movie like Mission Impossible: Fallout, or even this summer's F9, it becomes just simply too much. Not everything can be the MCU, but NTTD wants to be the Avengers: Endgame of this nearly 60 year franchise.

The Craig Bonds have all more or less picked up where the last one left off, and this does too, as Bond is off on vacation with Lea Seydoux from the last movie. But of course soon shit happens and Bond is pulled back into the fray. It's the usual. A dastardly villain (Rami Malek) has plans to destroy the world with a virus that targets particular DNA.

But before Craig and Malek even face off two hours into this very bloated 2 hour and 43 minute movie, there's a ton of plot and callbacks to get through. Bond movies are best when it is kept simple.

We get extra villains, including Christoph Waltz returning to chew the scenery in a few scenes, some random CIA guy who turns out to be a bad guy (that whole bit should have been cut), a Russian scientist who created the virus, and even a brief point where the movie tries.to convince us that Ralph Fiennes' M is the bad guy.

Along with of course Moneypenny and Q, Bond teams up with a new 007, played by Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch, who is pretty badass and whose presence is sure to incite the incels. Although there is nothing in the movie to really suggest that she will lead her own Bond movie (I wouldn't mind it though).

The best part of the movie is when Bond teams up on an assignment with an enthusiastic young agent played by the dazzling Ana de Armas. In a largely serious movie, she provides some badly needed levity, and her chemistry with Craig here is just as fun as it was in Knives Out. In Rewatchables terms, this is one of the best heat check performances in years (she drains threes left and right).

Craig and Seydoux don't really have much chemistry. I mean, she is gorgeous so I get why Bond would fall for her, but big parts of this movie really hang on her being THE love of Bond's life. Craig easily has more chemistry with every other woman on screen. 

Malek is also a big dud as the villain. For most of the movie he is an afterthought. Waltz's brief appearance gets far more attention. It's not much of a character. Malek has facial scars, and talks in a whisper, but there's no there there.

The action sequences are all excellent, especially the pre-credit one. This is also a Bond movie that takes some real chances with what happens in the story. There is no doubt this is Craig's last turn in the role, and he goes out strong.