No time to die is pretty good movie and a fitting send off to Daniel Craig’s Bond. For the most part I enjoyed the movie and I think it largely succeeds as a final act for Daniel Craigs Bond and gives the character a satisfying ending. The movie ain’t perfect, it's very long and I think the pacing ends up feeling a bit weird due to a time gap. At times it feels like a bit of a pastiche of a Bond film, there are a ton of Bond’isms that feel like they are in the film just to tick off a list of reinforce the brand. But overall the movie works, there are some good pay offs to prior films, it’s a great last ride for Craig and very good satisfying send off for his iteration of James Bond.

Story wise the film picks up soon after 2015's Spectre but after that we have a time gap in which Blofled has been captured and Bond is now retired to somewhere in the Caribbean. Things happen that end up bringing him out of retirement and we go from there. While Spectre is in the movie and we get a new villain Rami Malik's Saffin, the movie is really about Bond and him dealing his place in the world. Craig's bond has been around a long time and in that time the world has changed, his relationships have changed and this is him reaping what he sowed and tying up those loose ends. The focus on bond is good but some aspects do end up taking a back seat. Spectre as mentioned and has a role, and Blofled is in the movie but stuff was sorted off screen in the time gap. We get Rami Malik's Saffin who is certainly a menacing guy and a decent villain but ends up lacking substance. What works is Bond being Bond, him dealing with stuff and all the big set pieces. There is a sequence in Italy that’s very good, another in Cuba where Ana De Armas’s Paloma show up that is a ton of fun, the final act is very classic James Bond. Its hard to talk about too much without spoiling the plot so ill have some spoiler thoughts after the main review.

No Time to Die sees a lot of returning faces, between the mi6 crew, Jeffery Wright's Felix, Lea Seydoux’s Madeline Swann, Christoph Waltz's Blofeld. New comers include Rami Malik's Safin who is a decent villain but as mentioned is not really as substantive as I would have hoped. Waltz's Blofled is still good but yeah takes a bit of a back seat. Lashana Lynch's Nomi is the new 007 and she is pretty good, is def more by the books than Bond and defiantly approaches these missions in a more reasonable way than Bond does looking to forgo the brawling and giant set pieces. One of the highlights is definitely Ana de Armas’s Paloma who is a ton of fun, unfortunately she isn't in the movie much but stands out quite a bit, would not be surprised to see Armas in the next Bond Franchise or in more action movies in general after this. We also see Billy Magnussen as a CIA agent who you may have seen in the director Carry Joji Fukunga's series Maniac and David Dencik as a Russian scientist who has some real Tobias Funke vibes which seem a bit out of place.

Overall it’s a good movie, it’s a bit long and sometimes feels like the finale to a TV series where you have skipped a season but yeah it works and again is a very fitting send off. A bit sad to see Craig go but it has been a long time (Casio Royale came out during the Bush Administration) and I think this is a great final act for this Bond. I’d be happy if they pulled a Judy Dench and brought back some of Bonds crew for the next franchise. But yeah overall good movie, its long but it's up being a good send off to Bond.

8/10

Spoilers

The movie did feel a bit pastiche with there being so many bond tropes implemented awkwardly. Like yeah he drives an Aston Martin but the "Shaken not Stirred" when ordering a drink, Bond villain on an island kinda thing made the movie feel like a bit of a pastiche, like tick off the Bond trope list here since it she last one. Credit to the past films they did not really feel like that though I have not really revisited any of them recently.

Ana de Armas is features in quite a bit of marketing but is only really in one of the "chapters". This is a bit of a weird thing to state but she is kind of distractingly attractive in this. Movies are filled with attractive people and I guess sometimes people are done up in such a way where you really notice it.

Again Saffin is kinda not a great villain very menacing but yeah ultimately lacking in substance. His mask is cool and makes a for a good jump scare but I kind of think this movie would have been fine making Spectre the main bad and making Christoph Waltz's Blofeld the big bad again.

Dad Bond plot is a bit predictable especially when they introduce the FOXDIE and Nanobots. Also the FOXDIE and Nanobots oops I mean Project Heracles is such a Kojima/Metal Gear thing. It would have been nice for Bond to spend a bit more time with his daughter, the movie was long as enough as is but yeah kinda sucks all he really got was a day with her.

Billie Elish’s Bond Song is fine but I hope we see another rock bond song eventually