Time to catch up on this year’s most notable releases, such as they finally are. First up, after a delay long enough to cause any martini collection to evaporate comes the latest and last outing for Daniel Craig as James Bond—and with the question of whether it was worth the wait, or needs to be sliced in half with a phallically themed laser.
For me, Craig’s era is an interesting one—long, though in numbers still but a fraction of Roger Moore in output. Perhaps that’s part down to the more intensive nature of modern filmmaking, perhaps that’s part to his evident reluctance with the character. In a similar pattern to Star Trek, it can be observed that every other of his films seemed to falter; Casino Royale was a solid reboot that held up better than I thought on recent rewatch, but Quantum of Solace wasn’t the most satisfying followup. Skyfall, even with some flaws more obvious to see now, remains a fitting landmark for the series—shame Spectre proved at best a mixed bag. Does that mean that No Time to Die then picks things up?
Sort of. It’s definitely an improvement over Spectre, but one that still left me with some ambivalence. The first thing I’ll get out of the way is that it’s got some solid visuals and well-executed action scenes, including the chase through the tight streets of an Italian village the trailers so lovingly showed off. From sinister commandos raiding a lab to a rather atmospheric forest gunfight, I enjoyed the action for the most part, even if it stumbled in the last third, which I’ll get to. The standout, of course, is a sequence spilling out of a Cuban nightclub, which to me at least hit the nail with how kinetically satisfying it felt—and was in the process a nice demonstration for new character Nomi (Lasha Lynch), whose setup with Bond does make things more interesting…for, again, the first two thirds or so.
The storyline once again deals with Bond trying to grapple with his place in a technology-driven spy scene (even if events in recent years illustrate ironically that the notion of government-sponsored hitmen haven’t exactly gone away). This time the film tries to raise things with an element of family, with Lea Seydoux's Swann—which while certainly a noble effort to raise the personal stakes, feels like the extended runtime could’ve used a little more time fleshing out. In the middle of it all is Rami Malek as bad guy Satain—who certainly puts in a solid effort with what he’s given, but what he’s given also by coincidence, well, feels like it could use some fleshing out. There’s a parallel with Christopher Waltz’s Blofeld from the last film in that what his actual endgame is feels a little vague to say the least—sure, we mock the cliche of the bad guy putting on a slideshow presentation for his nuclear missile scheme, but just a misplaced sticky note even would’ve been nice.
In the final act, we get something resembling the classic setup of Bond infiltrating an elaborate island lair, this time infused with brutalist-styled bioweapon labs (once again, I for damn sure will give kudos to the visual atmosphere). This is where things get shakier for me—while there’s interjections of some nice action and one-liners, it all felt it needed just a little more tempo, and not let the viewer linger too much on slightly confusing exposition. But at the end, despite this unevenness, it all comes to a very conclusive end for Craig’s Bond—one that I do honestly appreciate for its finality, even if the execution will probably be nitpicked in rambling Youtube videos for years to come.
Overall, No Time To Do proved somewhat uneven for me, but there was enough in there to keep me going to the end despite that. The question follows is where next—and right now, it’s an open canvas. Perhaps they’ll go back to Cold War period pieces, perhaps another reinvention for the modern day. The original series up through to Brosnan was itself no stranger to reboots and reinvention—it was merely a matter of that being less of a deal in a pre-Marvel, pre-continuity obsession culture. And next to some of the seemingly endless continuations of our current years, I will give the filmmakers respect for letting this particular segment stand on its own. Where they go from here is something I certainly intend to keep an eye on…
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