Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Year of Release: 2021
Should you watch it?
Sure! But probably only if you have any emotional investment Daniel Craig’s James Bond.
Why?
“It’s a good life isn’t it.”
This is Daniel Craig’s Logan. Craig has been desperately trying to escape James Bond for the last decade. While Skyfall would have been a better and bolder goodbye to Daniel Craig, No Time to Die is a satisfying goodbye all the same. If nothing else, this film certainly captures the strengths and weaknesses of the Craig films. These films have been simultaneously going Prestige TV Mode (aka doing the serialization shit that no one asked for) and also went Jason Bourne Mode (aka absolutely drowning under the weight of their own obsession with James Bond LORE). On the bright side, the thing that this movie has going for it is Daniel Craig’s pitch-perfect characterization of James Bond. Even when the movie itself is bogged down in bullshit, he manages to rise above it always.
How is the Bond?
Craig’s characterization here twofold. In the film’s prologue, the idea is that he desperately misses Eva Green and is remorseful that it could not work out between them and that she died and how she died. To be honest, this is the first time James Bond has been relatable in any way. Whom amongst us, after all.
The rest of the film features Craig alternating between conveying a feeling of forced detachment and a “fuck it” mentality. Craig has recognized that this whole mi6 shit is stupid but he is who he is so he is gonna do whatever he wants in the big world of international espionage and he is gonna at least have some fun while he does it. In many ways, this felt like the first movie where Daniel Craig’s James Bond sincerely had fun being James Bond. Which makes his death at the end even more sad.
The tension for James here is that his enemies keep trying to deny him a life with Lea Seydoux – truly the most diabolical James Bond movie plotline yet. But it makes for a really nice beat for Craig to play. He forces himself to be distant from the world against his will when in reality he really wants to be a part of a community in some way.
How is (are) the Bond Woman (en)?
Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, and Ana de Armas are all arguably the Bond Women in this one. They all capture various roles Bond Women have played over the years. Seydoux plays the love interest but, Seydoux, not the strongest actress in the world as it is, gets bogged down with the baggage that comes from having the Bond lore tied to her. Lynch plays the fellow rival spy who gets to tag along for the big adventure. de Armas briefly gets to play the small supporting role for one sequence. It is by far the best sequence of the film and makes you long for a James Bond film that is just Craig, de Armas, and Whishaw saving the world.
How is the Bond Villain?
Rami Malek is just so hilariously bad here. I have no idea what direction he was given but he is clearly just Eddie Redmayne levels of bad in general that it probably didn’t matter. He is just lost in the sauce and grasping at straws. He has no real character to speak of and the late attempts at giving him larger motivation for his world-ending scheme felt obligatory at best. On some level, the filmmakers must have realized how bad he was because it feels like he is edited out of the movie.
Does the film irresponsibly present the West as the hero of the world and thus promote imperialism and colonialism as inherently positive?
Yes.
The Reel World 