More than Craig's serious take on the role, the distinguishing mark of this Bond era has been continuity. Each movie has fed into the next in explicit ways, and that in turn makes it meaningful that Craig says this is his last time in the role. This is not "one more adventure" as it was when each previous Bond actor delivered their final performance. This episode is determined to bring everything together and put a definitive ending on it -- a tall order, since Spectre was (to mixed results) also trying to do that.
In that aspect, No Time to Die is excellent. The movie not only acknowledges what we've seen before in Craig's films, but in numerous scattered Easter eggs, the whole franchise running back to the 60s. Before the movie, I wasn't necessarily sold on the fact that any given James Bond needs a declared finale to the franchise -- not when there's always going to be another movie, another Bond. But No Time to Die convinced me. It ended well, both as a movie and as a collection of five movies.
There was also a lot of other great things about the movie, and perhaps the second biggest flaw of No Time to Die is not finding time (in a 163 minute opus) to give us more of those great things. Ana de Armas is possibly only in this movie because Daniel Craig had fun working with her in Knives Out, but in too-few minutes on screen, she makes a far better case for the female-led James Bond spin-off than the one they tried to set up for Halle Berry in Die Another Day. So, to a lesser extent, does Lashana Lynch as Nomi, the character they might actually be setting up to spin off. But those women are critically underutilized in this movie, given how good or great we see they are in the brief moments they get to shine. Perhaps it's no surprise, though... they've been underutilizing Naomie Harris since the pre-credits sequence to Skyfall ended. (I guess there's only so much you get to do in a James Bond movie if your name's not James Bond.)
The biggest flaw of No Time to Die? That would be -- sorry to say -- Rami Malek as the villain, Lyutsifer Safin. It starts with what feels like a lackluster character on the page. Safin really doesn't do much (though sure, Christoph Waltz's turn in Spectre was the highlight of that movie, and a tough act to follow). The character also has a scheme that simply doesn't make sense. It starts out clear enough as revenge, but morphs somewhere along the way into unexplained genocide, and would completely fail the movie if Bond didn't also have personal stakes.
From that major weakness of the script, there's just incorrect casting in putting Malek in the role. The logic of the story would suggest that someone 10 or 15 years older was called for, but one can understand that a red-hot actor (who would win an Oscar between the filming and release of this movie) made them turn a blind eye to the inconsistency, pretending that makeup explains it away. Having landed Malek, though, the filmmakers must have been quite disappointed by the performance they got. He's shockingly boring -- not emotionally pent-up in his trademark "beneath the surface" Mr. Robot way. Just flat. Not the least bit charismatic or compelling, and somehow surpassing Quantum of Solace's Mathieu Amalric as the least memorable villain of the Craig era.
Fortunately, Craig is good enough to overcome it all -- the weak villain, the long run time, the forgettable opening theme song (which is forced to compete with other, more indelible themes from other Bonds that composer Hans Zimmer weaves throughout the score). To really hone in on what works here would, unfortunately, spoil some of the fun in watching it yourself. But suffice it to say, Bond fans will like this one. A few may even love it. I give No Time to Die a B.
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