Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Starring: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes, Christoph Waltz, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Jeffrey Wright, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas
No Time to Die is Daniel Craig's final James Bond film, but it is not a wise idea to reboot the franchise yet again a few years from now with a different Bond. It makes no difference who is playing the iconic 007, the series is years past its sell-by date. Attempting to restart the Bond franchise is akin to placing a bottle of spoiled milk back in the refrigerator in the hopes it will be fresh tomorrow.
From a production and technical standpoint, No Time to Die receives high marks. Craig allows himself to have more joy with the role this time around, but No Time to Die has "been there, done that" written all over it, from the car chases to the invasion of the impregnable villain's lair. I won't recheck my past Bond movie reviews, but I'm almost certain I've echoed similar sentiments or even used the phrase "been there, done that." As much as it tries, No Time to Die can't escape the shadow of the previous twenty-four Bond films. If you've seen one car chase, fistfight, shootout, or a Bond villain explain ad nauseum how and why he plans to destroy the world, then you've seen them all.
No Time to Die picks up on the heels of the dismal Spectre (2015) with Bond and his love interest Madeleine Swann (Seydoux) vacationing in Italy (can Bond every truly "vacation"?). Something Is Coming Between Them, however, and Bond attempts to put his past behind him by visiting the grave of Vesper Lynd (from Casino Royale). Soon enough, Spectre agents are making attempts on his life. After dispatching the thugs, Bond puts Madeleine on a train and promises they won't see each other again.
Fast forward five years later, Bond is off the grid and retired from espionage but is lured out of retirement at the request of old friend CIA agent Felix Leiter (Wright). Leiter needs Bond's help in finding a DNA-altering program called Hericles which has fallen into the hands of megalomaniac named Lyutsifer Safin (Malek), who naturally plans to use the program in ways in which it was not intended. Safin has ties to Madeleine's past, based on the movie's opening scenes in which he murdered her mother and spared her. It turns out Madeleine is the daughter of another villain from Bond's past, making any levels of trust between she and Bond difficult. Madeleine also has a young daughter who has Bond's blue eyes, but...nah.
Another agent has replaced Bond in the time he was gone, a confident young woman named Nomi (Lynch) who is the new 007. Anyone expecting Nomi to flex any sort of meaningful muscle will be sorely disappointed, as she is mostly relegated to the sidelines once Bond comes back full-time. Ralph Fiennes has moments in which his M is allowed to expand as a character and not just play Bond's humorless boss. Craig and Seydoux do what they can in a chemistry-free rekindled romance, but like the rest of No Time to Die, it's lifeless. No Time to Die takes us to exotic locales and different cities, but no matter where the series goes, there Bond is. In a series in which we used to eagerly anticipate how Bond would topple the latest villain and scuttle his attempts to rule the world, Malek's Safin isn't drawn out enough for us to care about him.
And then there is the 163-minute running time which is extraordinarily long even by Bond standards. The time isn't used wisely. Much of No Time to Die feels bloated and tries to cover too much ground. Three returning characters from previous Bond films meet their maker in this film. After now twenty-five Bond movies spanning nearly sixty years, it is time for the series to go off into retirement. We've seen reboots, six different actors play Bond in their unique style, and just about every creative avenue in the series taken. Bond has been wrung as dry as his shaken, not stirred martinis.
No comments:
Post a Comment