Review: No Time to Die (2021)

For a movie that signals urgency in its title, No Time to Die sure takes its sweet time. It moves with a self-conscious sense of its own significance as the final Daniel Craig 007 film. It’s ponderously slow at times, to the point of being overburdened with the foreknowledge of its own final import—which many canny viewers will go into the film expecting. Add to that the unfortunate ready-and-then-not release date extension game—which of course was beyond the filmmakers’ control— and we have a Bond movie that promises, expects, teases, and then extends more of itself than it can deliver or sustain. It’s unlike so many of the old Bond films, which, like 007’s bedding habits in those movies, love furiously and then show us the door. 

Like its immediate predecessor, 2015’s Spectre, No Time to Die is neither a bad film nor a bad Bond movie. It has a good number of the key ingredients, those components that make a Bond movie: there’s a new threat to the world, secretly plotted by a megalomaniac villain; his secret lair to be invaded; beautiful and dangerous women (but no longer to be seduced); exotic locations around the world; car chases; spy gadgets; matter-of-fact intelligence meetings about how to stop the bad guys, combined with outlandish action setpieces. Surely, No Time to Die is more solid and sturdy than many current blockbusters. But the film doesn’t fully satisfy, especially for this particular Bond aficionado, mostly because it so desperately wants to be more. 

It reveals a franchise that’s losing its sense of itself, pulled in too many directions by the trends and tastes of the moment, and displaying a less sure vision of who Bond is in the second decade of the 21st century. This happens from time to time with the 007 franchise, and so I won’t take the producers to task too much, but it’s something to be observed and corrected.

One of the problems here is that over the course of Daniel Craig’s run as 007, from 2006’s Casino Royale to today’s No Time to Die, we got two films that were so good, that were so very Bond, fully inhabiting the character with an assured presence while exploring and expanding him with a sense of renewed vitality. Casino Royale and Skyfall are among the best of the franchise (as Aren and I have written for our James Bond 007 Retrospective); they also reinterpret and revitalize that which came before them (as we discussed in our Daniel Craig Roundtable). But those two are so good that the other Craig films pale in comparison. Quantum of Solace was fast and forgettable. No Time to Die is rather like the languid, inflated Spectre, which is not surprising given that this film is styled as a direct sequel. So we get more of the gadgets and large-scale action, a few more cheesy quips, but at the same time it wants to be a “significant” Bond movie, producing the impact of the scenes that I cherish most from Casino Royale, where you think to yourself while watching, “Wow, I can’t believe a Bond movie is this good in the character scenes.” But No Time to Die never makes me think that.

The cast is hit and miss, which basically sums up the achievements of the film. Ralph Fiennes’ M is well-drawn and performed, making some misguided decisions with serious consequences in the story, which works well in a world in which we increasingly question the judgement of our institutions. Craig is once again solid. In spite of some emotional scenes, however, I don’t think this is his best performance, and so I disagree with the critical buzz. Craig is more raw and vital in Casino Royale, and more grizzled and wise in Skyfall. Ben Whishaw’s Q continues to entertain in just the right dosage: not too much, not too little Q.

Lashana Lynch’s Nomi, a female double-0 agent and heir within the story to Bond, is fine. However, at times she’s written and portrayed too much like Halle Berry’s Jinx, from Die Another Day; as in, the filmmakers are trying too hard to make her cool, even cooler than Bond. She doesn’t need so many neat hair styles and sunglasses and one liners. She’s better when she is just a competent agent and annoyed competitor/teammate of Bond’s. Bond’s charm has always been effortless. Less is more with superspies. But Nomi has times where she delivers, and she could be a good additional character to the series, like a Felix Leiter. Speaking of Jeffrey Wright’s Felix Leiter, he is a genuine pleasure to see on screen again. Wright and Craig actually generate more chemistry as companions in arms (“brothers” from Langley and London) than Bond does with Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann, whose relationship with Bond, in both this film and Spectre, never achieves the urgency and gravity as the two films claim for it. Vesper still remains the one who really possessed Bond’s heart. 

Other new characters showcase the film’s highs and lows: Ana de Armas’s secret agent, Paloma, should have been in it more. She’s so gorgeous you can’t believe the film’s approach of taking away Bond’s women by giving him more drinks. So alcoholism is in; womanizing out. (A comment on the new approved vices?) In contrast, Rami Malek is simply a cartoon in a serious movie. His makeup and getup doesn’t work. His story doesn’t sweep us in. His monologues do not captivate. Christoph Waltz dances around him and blows him up in just a single scene. The cyborg-eyed henchman works: not too silly but silly enough. Another Bond acrobatic henchman, in a long line of them.

The most surprising thing about the movie is the focus on weaponized viruses, the details of which I won’t spoil, but I can’t believe they wrote this before 2020. It plays better than they could ever have hoped for. Well done. They lucked out. Relevancy for those who care; added fear for the still paranoid. 

The action scenes are capable, deploying a few of the long takes that Cary Fukunaga has made a name for himself with, although none of them are either as pretentious or effective as the opening shot in Spectre. However, the use of long continuous takes does recall video game combat, most notably the famous N64 Bond game, GoldenEye. The car chase in the Italian mountain town is the film’s best action sequence in my view; it utilizes the Bond car’s gadgets in a way that is neat, exciting, and not too goofy. Many of the exotic locations are truly impressive. The Norwegian fern-and-mist-filled woods are a memorable addition, and the final villain’s island lair is by-the-book yet still satisfying. 

Linus Sandgren’s cinematography is gorgeous but not as stunning as Roger Deakin’s in Skyfall. We get hints of that film’s play with light and dark, however, in a neat scene depicting the armed robbery of a secret lab.

What else can I say? I won’t spoil any more fun for now; I’ll save that for a podcast or essay. Just go in with modest expectations and you will be happy to see 007 on the big screen again. It’s just not a Bond movie to die for. So at least the title gets that right. 

6 out of 10

No Time to Die (2021, UK/USA)

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga; written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge; starring Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, and Ralph Fiennes.

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