By Jack McLaughlin
“No Time To Die” is the latest installment in the long running James Bond film series. The film stars Daniel Craig, who is reprising his role as the iconic 007 for the fifth time now.
Craig has had 15 years to prove to viewers that his take on the character is worth looking into, and his final film as the character made me remember why I fell in love with this series in the first place.
The film’s central conflict is Bond going after the main villain Safin, who is played by Rami Malek, who is in possession of nanobots containing a deadly virus that he intends on spreading throughout the world.
The over-the-top story presented here perfectly fits the tone the movie goes for, which is an exciting action film that takes viewers across various locations with interesting characters.
The most criminal thing this movie does is the lack of Rami Malek in this movie. For the main villain, he doesn’t really start becoming important to the plot until well over an hour in. And once he is introduced, his lack of screen time makes him a pretty underdeveloped character, which is unfortunate because his unsettling performance is the best in the film.
With an underdeveloped villain, the main characters do get a lot of time to shine, fortunately. The relationship between James Bond and Madeleine Swan, who is played by Léa Seydoux, is a huge part of the movie and does a good job with wrapping up the arc between these two characters.
Unfortunately, the imbalance of screen time between the protagonists and antagonists makes the story suffer a little bit. I had trouble in the start and middle of this movie figuring out where the filmmakers were going with the plot. It isn’t until the second half of the movie where the central conIict gains focus and becomes an incredibly fun spy movie.
The main attraction for this movie is the action sequences, and this nearly three-hour movie packs itself full of them. The opening sequence in Italy was a beautiful and exciting highlight and did an excellent job of hyping me up and that energy isn’t something that left me for the duration of the film.
Going into the movie, I was concerned that the runtime would mean there were going to be a lot of slow points. But fortunately, this was not the case. The pacing felt perfect to me, and by the end I was convinced I could sit through another three hours of this.
On a technical level, this is the most impressive action movie I’ve seen all year. The cinematography is fantastic, even days after watching I still think about specific shots that I adored. Any of the sequences taking place in cities or even something as simple as characters scaling down a building resonated with me so much due to the unique style they went with for these shots.
The film’s soundtrack, which is done by the legendary Hans Zimmer, pays homage to the older sounds that people are used to in James Bond movies while also taking the time to make it feel fresh. The movie’s original song, which is done by Billie Eilish, was a great song that fits the opening credits of the film exceptionally well.
The movie has a satisfying ending that will reward those who have stuck through each of these films, which have all been of varying quality. The way it wraps up these characters and this era of James Bond is well done and I honestly feel like this character can lay dormant for a long time after a finale like this.
“No Time To Die” is a strong conclusion for this series of James Bond movies, and despite a few issues is one of my favorite films to come out this year.
Rating: B+
While not perfect, it’s a proper sendoff for these characters