Is 'No Time To Die' A Satisfying Conclusion To Daniel Craig's Run As James Bond? Here's What The Reviews Say
After a series of delayed releases, "No Time to Die," Daniel Craig's last 007 film, is finally premiering in theaters next week. Does the movie offer a fitting ending to Craig's outing as Bond or does the "No Time to Die" fail to reach the heights of previous films like "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall"? Here's what critics are saying.
In 'No Time To Die,' James Bond Is Forced Out Of Retirement
While most previous James Bond movies are more standalone than not, "No Time to Die" is very much a sequel to the previous films, relying on events from not just the previous one, "Spectre," but "Casino Royale" and the others too […] Things pick up with James Bond (Daniel Craig), now retired, living the good life with his girlfriend Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). Swann's past, left mysterious in the previous film, quickly comes back though and James is forced to make difficult decisions that bring him back into service.
[Gizmodo]
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga ("True Detective"), this Bond serves notice of its grand storytelling ambitions with perhaps the longest pre-credit sequence in memory, both introducing the mysterious new villain (played by Rami Malek, seemingly channeling Peter Lorre) and finding Bond happily retired. Of course, his post-service bliss can't last, as M (Ralph Fiennes) and his CIA pal Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) both endeavor to lure him back on a mission that involves a terrible bioweapon (maybe not the best time for that particular plot) and his old nemeses at Spectre, bringing back Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) and the now-incarcerated Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) from that 2015 movie.
[CNN]
The Movie Seamlessly Balances Different Elements That Make A Bond Film Pleasurable
Craig's final film as the diva of British intelligence is an epic barnstormer, with the script from Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy (Bond will call M "darling" in moments of tetchiness), heartbreak, macabre horror and outrageously silly old-fashioned action in a movie which calls to mind the world of Dr No on his island.
You need an ingenious weave of elements: the perfect layered rhythm of brashly timed fights and great escapes and bedazzling chases and delectable quips and cool gadgets and sexy one-upmanship and the ultimate in world-domination stakes. "No Time to Die," at 2 hours and 43 minutes, is the longest Bond film ever, yet it's brisk and heady and sharp. The director, Cary Joji Fukunaga (HBO's "True Detective"), keeps the elements in balance like an ace juggler.
[Variety]
And The Movie Definitely Subscribes To The Idea That 'More Is More'
"No Time To Die" has a running time of two hours and 43 minutes — an hour longer than "Quantum of Solace" — making it the longest Bond movie of all. It feels long, too. But it packs in so much that you can hardly complain. The film's director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, clearly doesn't subscribe to the theory that less is more. He and his co-writers […] have delivered a sequel to "Spectre," with all the continuity and romantic angst we've come to expect from Craig-era Bond. But "No Time To Die" is also the kind of outsized standalone sci-fi yarn we might associate with the earlier 007s, complete with gadgets, bonkers world-domination schemes and a cavernous secret headquarters that could have been built by Ken Adam in the days of Sean Connery and Roger Moore.
[BBC]
[I]n scene after scene, the character development and plot will advance ever so slightly, while the scenes themselves escalate exponentially like a dozen mini-movies. The slow-developing, slightly repetitive nature can be a bit exhausting. And yet, this is a James Bond movie. James Bond is at his best when he's being over the top and excessive. More guns, more cars, more motorcycles, more gadgets, more martinis? Yes, please. Those things are the driving force of the entire franchise. And "No Time to Die" has all of it in spades, even if it's at times a bit much.
[Gizmodo]
"No Time to Die," the 25th James Bond movie, almost feels like 25 movies in one. So much happens in its complex story — filled with so many sprawling, varied set pieces — that by the time you get to the end, the events of the beginning feel like they happened 18 months ago.
[Gizmodo]
The Relationship Between Lea Seydoux's Madeleine And Bond, The Emotional Core Of The Movie, Doesn't Always Work
The problem is that this final installment builds its stakes around a relationship it's barely dramatized: Seydoux's thinly sketched Madeleine is but a shadow of the dearly departed Vesper, a love interest so richly drawn by Eva Green that you could actually buy her getting through to a hunk of patriotic human weaponry like James Bond.
[T]he franchise still can't move on from how perfect a Bond girl Eva Green was in "Casino Royale," and Léa Seydoux is forced to contend with that fact, five films on.
But It's Undeniable That 'No Time To Die' Is One Of The Most Moving Bond Films To Date
But what's notable here is that this is arguably the most tender portrait of James Bond we've ever seen; the emotional stakes are raised by a love that's far more than the usual passing flirtation.
"No Time to Die" is at its very best when it allows the actor [Craig] room to take his final curtsy with both grace and style, allowing him to leave the franchise with not only a good dollop of dignity, but a reminder that he gave Bond a soul. And he is brilliant in "No Time to Die," in a way that outshines everything around him. His granite-carved features crumple in just such a way, always at the right moment — his Bond contains an ocean of battered emotions trying to reach the surface.
The next James Bond film will not be with Daniel Craig but he can go out saying he gave audiences probably the biggest, and definitely the most emotional, Bond movie ever.
[Gizmodo]
And For Those Who Have Been Following Craig's Tenure As Bond, You Can't Help But Be Hit With The Feels Watching 'No Time To Die,' Flaws And All
I never thought I'd wipe away a tear at the end of a James Bond movie, but "No Time to Die" fulfills its promise. It finishes off the saga of Craig's 007 in the most honestly extravagant of style.
[Variety]
Anyone who has developed an attachment to the grit and gravitas, the coiled physicality and brooding demeanor that Daniel Craig has brought to the reinvigorated James Bond franchise, starting in 2006 with "Casino Royale," will feel a surge of raw feeling in the devastating closing act of his fifth and final appearance in the role in "No Time to Die."
TL; DR
It may not rank up there with "Skyfall," but it's a moving valedictory salute to the actor who has left arguably the most indelible mark on the character since Connery.
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