Review: No Time to Die (2021)

No Time to Die

Rating

Director

Cary Joji Fukunaga

Screenplay

Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Length

2h 43m

Starring

Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Billy Magnussen, Christoph Waltz, David Dencik, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah

MPAA Rating

PG-13

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Review

The storied saga of James Bond is one the most enduring franchises in cinema. More than 50 years of history sits behind No Time to Die and the series has enjoyed some largely fruitful returns, but is that what people really want or should it be the escapism that helped countless audiences endure the threat of nuclear holocaust from the 60s through the 80s? No Time to Die makes its case, but is it enough?

This latest Bond adventure once again positions the super spy (Daniel Craig) as facing a new threat, a bioweapon that is harmless to anyone who doesn’t carry the DNA markers it is seeking to destroy. Ostensibly to eradicate major world threats without getting the possessor’s hand’s dirty, the concept poses difficult questions as to the moral implications of such efforts. Bond returns to active service to assist old pal Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) in his quest to stop the virus from getting into hostile hands.

What did Craig bring to the role of James Bond that none before him have? Mixing in a bit of Sean Connery’s debonair aura and Timothy Dalton’s machismo, Craig’s bitter take on the character fits well in the darker, more agonizingly realistic era the franchise has yet had. The traditions and styles of the Bond series are still there, but they have a veneer that’s more dull and abrasive. It’s as if Bond’s producers saw what worked with The Bourne Identity series and adapted it to the Bond universe. After all, Casino Royale came out after the first two Bourne pictures.

Whether that’s been a benefit to the whole or a detriment is up to the individual viewer. It’s easy to embrace the more realistic and often morbid world because of its similarities to our own while the stylized elements of the series have been dulled and diminished. What you expect from the Craig era films is something more viscerally daunting. The joie-de-vivre, self-assured swagger of the Bond character reduced to a more relatable everyman who just happens to know how to kick ass in myriad ways.

No Time to Die is an amalgam of all that has been the Craig Bond experience. The thrills are all still there and the action segments are among the best the franchise has offered. The scene at the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. party with a newly-minted agent played by Ana de Armas is the highlight. What we often forget about the Bond character is that he’s human. He’s not just one of the world’s greatest spies. He has the heart of a human being that is sorely tested by the events around him. He, like the audience, must watch as his loved ones are harmed and his cherished institutions are tarnished while he’s in pursuit of seemingly noble goals.

What this film means to the future of the franchise is unknown. A return to the pulp excess of the earlier films might be in order, giving audiences a chance to see the vaunted figure in a new and more entertaining light. Like the stunning opening credits sequence for this film, there’s still hope that all that we once knew about this character can still return and as the placard at the end of the film says, James Bond Will Return. But can he return unchanged? We shall see in a few years when the next actor takes on the Bond role.