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no time to die

No Time to Die is the most emotional James Bond movie to ever hit the big screen. And it’s not just because this is the final Bond film with Daniel Craig in the iconic role, making this extra poignant for those who passionately believe no one has been better in the part.

It’s also that for Craig’s swan song we are given a film that actually has a beating heart, exploring the history and development of Craig’s Bond, as his stoic angst and brooding gives way to levity, vulnerability, and -- dare we say it -- some actual emotional growth. And then there’s the content of the movie itself, which I won’t spoil, but let’s just say there is some Greek tragedy-level pathos.

All these factors make for a moving film where the crushing disappointment of Spectre is but a distant memory. After its 17-month COVID delay, No Time to Die’s release just hits different. It truly feels like a bit of closure on an era. And while there have been many COVID cinema comeback milestones, for those in the industry who were making plans for its release back in March 2020, it feels especially significant and meaningful.

Yet for those who don’t want emotion out of your espionage action adventures, there’s still plenty of gasp-worthy thrills and exotic locations to make you feel right at home. And where No Time to Die does break with tradition, it does so with tremendous success, so while it may not reach Skyfall level heights, it comes pretty close.

One untraditional choice is that the film doesn’t actually open with Bond, but with a gripping flashback to Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine surviving an attack by a man in a creepy China doll mask as a child. Cut to present day, as Madeleine and Bond are passionately in love and traveling the Italian coast in his little G5. I barely remember anything about their love story in Spectre, but I immediately felt the strength of their connection.

But of course their romantic bliss must come to end, and after Bond is attacked in a place only Madeleine knew he would be, all signs point to betrayal. So he puts her on a train, they part ways, and Bond enters selfimposed exile in Jamaica.

He puts his short shorts and fishing gear away, though, when a new tool of biological warfare emerges. Developed in an off-the-books British lab, “Heracles” is an engineered pathogen of nanobots that spreads like a virus (yup, a virus) and can be targeted to specific DNA. It was developed as a tool to save lives by being more effective at killing than a single shot. But of course good intentions only go so far. Enter the film’s cut-from-a-familiar-cloth, megalomaniac villain Safin (Rami Malek), a poison manufacturer with a tragic past who wants to use it for evil.

And so Bond is brought back into the fold. First recruited by his old pal Felix (Jeffery Wright) from the CIA, and then the rest of the band gets back together as he returns to Mi6. And all the characters we’ve grown to care for over the past five films -- Ralph Fiennes’ M, Ben Whishaw as Q, and even Tanner (Rory Kinner) -- get their own little moments, tying up character arcs. Only Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) doesn’t seem to get the goodbye she deserves.

The film benefits from all the dense layers of history and relationships between characters. Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), the villain in Spectre, is even brought back in Hannibal Lecture-style lockup, being treated by psychiatrist Madeleine.

The film even successfully introduces a new character, a new agent 007, played by Lashanna Lynch, and her repartee with Craig is biting. And giving a black woman the 007 moniker feels like a deliberate FU to fanboys. I couldn’t support the choice more!

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) delivers all the spectacle you could possibly crave, taking you across picturesque Italian villages, a moody Norwegian forest, an Eyes Wide Shut-esque birthday party in Cuba, and a super stylized Soviet industrial island. It’s eye candy that actually manages to compete with Craig’s blue eyes.

At 2 hours and 43 minutes, this is the longest Bond movie ever, but it manages to breeze along, balancing action, humor, and character development with aplomb. When the cold open ends and Billie Eilish’s mournful theme song starts, you won’t believe you’ve likely already been sitting in the theater for over an hour since showtime. This is largely because Fukunaga crafted a film that is funny, self aware, and where Bond actually manages to treat women like equals.

This is also no doubt a result of the sparkling influence of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s (Fleabag) work on the script, which is lighter on its feet even when it gets convoluted. Craig shows glimmers of having as much fun as he did in Knives Out. He even makes pancakes! And speaking of Knives Out, Craig briefly reunites with costar Ana de Armas, who in what is usually a forgettable B-Bond Girl part, is an absolute knockout as a newbie CIA agent. It’s a sequence that leaves you wanting more, but it’s also the beauty of its brevity that makes it so darn perfect.

No Time to Die is a showcase worthy of the extraordinary service Craig’s Bond has provided, not only to Queen and country, but also to the franchise. And he gets a dramatic ending that left me shaken, capping off a epic extravaganza that will leave you stirred.