As far as expectations, No Time to Die was in a tight spot. On top of nearly two years of release delays, the film carries the weight of Daniel Craig’s final outing as British superspy James Bond. Craig’s tenure has already been a rollercoaster of franchise highs and clunkers, and after the dismal reception of 2015’s (very dull) Spectre, this movie is unfairly carrying a lot of baggage. In spite of all this, No Time to Die is perfectly fine; an enjoyable enough entry in the 007 canon and a solid farewell to Craig’s era of Bond.
Craig preserves his legacy by not letting his performance in Spectre have the last laugh. Craig was completely unengaged in that film, sleep-walking through many set pieces, but he shows up in No Time to Die. Even when the film doesn’t quite reach the dramatic depths it would like, Craig is putting in every effort to wring emotionality and pathos out of his performance. Craig’s Bond works best when he is on the back foot, especially during the set pieces. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga stages varied and entertaining action sequences around Bond that are smartly paced and confidently shot. Fukunaga makes good use of Craig’s brash physicality, which has always set his Bond apart from previous incarnations.
Like most Bond films, the plot is convoluted. It juggles too many storylines, attempting to tie up every narrative thread set up in the prior four Craig films. For a franchise that is mostly one-off installments, Craig’s films have been preoccupied with a serialized story, for better or worse. With so many narrative masters to serve, some storylines naturally get shortchanged. Rami Malek is effectively creepy as the primary antagonist, but the third act may have carried more weight if he’d had more of a story presence throughout the film. Lashana Lynch, who received eye-rolling, toxic backlash as the new 007 since Bond’s in-story retirement, is ultimately underused. It’s not Lynch’s fault; she is charismatic and does what she can, but Lynch’s Nomi comes off as superficially jealous and one-note. If they were hoping to backdoor pilot her character, it was a failure.
While the best of Craig’s outings work on several levels, a significant factor was the key relationships tying disparate elements together: Casino Royale’s tragic love affair between Bond and Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, and Skyfall’s rich, nuanced, paternal relationship with Bond and Dame Judi Dench’s M. Much of No Time to Die’s emotional throughline relies on how much we care about Bond’s relationship with Lea Seydoux’s Madeleine Swan that was established in Spectre. It’s actually a credit to this film that it’s able to salvage some of the sloppiest elements of Spectre, but the trade-off is that those elements unfortunately contribute baggage to No Time to Die.
Craig’s run has always had interesting comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Casino Royale and Batman Begins, both released relatively close to each other, had the task of reclaiming an iconic character from over-blown camp and winking self-reference with a fresh, grounded reinvention. The middle installments, Skyfall and The Dark Knight, are the critical high points of both series (and weirdly both feature the central villain being captured as a part of their overly-complicated plan). Finally, No Time to Die closes this loop. Just like Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, both films have their glaring flaws and plot holes, both threaten to buckle under the weight of their narrative ambition, and neither quite reach the heights of their predecessors—yet they still provide satisfactory company bows for all involved. Now that Craig has hung up the jacket and sidearm, where do the Bond overlords at MGM go creatively with the character? It’s a compliment to Craig that there’s no obvious answer. It must be a relief that, after all the buildup to this film’s release, No Time to Die delivered a suitably solid sendoff for Craig’s iconic portrayal. Now quick, before the body’s cold—on to the next Bond fancasting!
No Time to Die is currently playing in theaters. It runs 163 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, brief strong language and some suggestive material.
