Six years after his last outing in Spectre, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is back in No Time To Die. It is Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond and my overall impression was this was more about Mr Craig than Mr Bond. When watching a Bond film I like to be left either shaken or stirred, this did neither, the overall feeling was perplexity!
This is a spoiler free review, these were the 12 things that struck me whilst watching it.
- My initial post viewing text to a friend “bof, I wouldn’t rush to see it.”
- I was left neither shaken nor stirred but rather perplexed.
- I really hate films that link back to previous films, as in you needed to refresh your memory. This is basically a six year late sequel to Spectre. I thought Blofeld was one of the weakest Bond villains and I didn’t like the love story between Bond and Madeleine Swann (Seydoux).
- It’s not particularly diverse but it is representative – two black female actors on screen is something to celebrate.
- Far too emotional, I’ve always preferred the unsaid rather than putting it all out there. I liked the fact the audience could make Bond whoever they liked. This current film, Bond is emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve.
- Lots of set pieces, I think the ones in Matera and Cuba are the best.
- They wanted Bond to be more sensitive and less misogynistic, sexist etc and instead, we just have constant bullets and violence. It’s noticeable the number of bullets. I’ve always thought to do what is asked of Bond he would need to shut his emotions down.
- The soundtrack is great – the different layers of the Bond theme tune is great.
- It’s too bloody long and it felt it. Around 20 mins before the end, the light pollution in the Ritzy was noticeable as people started turning their phones on and checking messages.
- 007 is just a number – very telling. The first five or possibly fifteen minutes and the nonsense soft focus needed to be cut. I think the writers forgot that the best part of Bond is that he starts with a bang and drops us into the action. That ending, well hmm, there’s so much to be said and so little time.
- Make sure you have a wee before you sit down, go even if you don’t think you need to!! Also, take in twice the amount of snacks you think you want.
- Out of all the Craig’s Bond films I prefer Skyfall and Casino Royale. This one needed another rewrite – they tried to be too clever and the Rami Malek’s villain felt like a carbon copy of Javier Bardem’s from Skyfall down to the same set!
No Time To Die is out in cinemas in the UK from 1 October and in the USA from 8 October.
