In the previous, twenty-fourth, series of this mothballed franchise, James Bond (Daniel Craig) did catch the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of the terrible organization “SPECTRE”, whom he had been chasing since the second series, put him in jail, and himself on an Aston Martin DB5 with the legendary number BMT216A, he left with the beautiful Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) for Italian Matera to indulge in the love of his favorite cocktails in retirement.
In the new “Bond” James for the first time in the franchise did not change his girlfriend for a new one, so we were greeted with coolness in the morning and the same Madeleine in Bond’s bed, which is still oh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, and he even rather cheerfully goes to the grave of Vesper Lind, where some problems await him, as well as unpleasant people from the same restless “SPECTRE”, after which Bond parted with the beautiful Madeleine due to insurmountable contradictions and says goodbye to Matera.
After some time, a new mortal danger begins to threaten the world: members of “SPECTRE” kidnap MI-6 scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Densik), who developed biological weapons called “Project Hercules”, and since Blofeld continues to lead this organization even from prison, then who does he know what they can do with these weapons?
Bond’s old friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), asks a retired 007 agent for help in finding Obruchev: James initially refuses, but then learns that the good old MI6 now has a new agent, or rather, 007 agent Nomi (Lashana Lynch ), after which Bond agrees to help Leiter.
Neither James nor Felix yet know that behind all these abductions, biological weapons and nanobots is a completely different terrible person – Lucifer Safin (Rami Malek). Bond does not know who Safin is, but Madeleine knows something about him: they met a long time ago when Madeleine was still small.
Will Bond, Leiter, the CIA and MI6 be able to stop the sinister Safin who threatens the whole world? This question does not terribly excite the audience.
***
The twenty-fifth film of the Bond film, the fifth film for Daniel Craig as James Bond. Even before the filming of this film, it was announced that this was the last Bond film for Daniel Craig, and it was clear to everyone that this was the last film for the character himself, because these days, who even needs a main character in the form of a tough white cisgender man? Of course, he had to be thrown into the dustbin of history in order to continue the franchise with a completely different hero, or, more precisely, a hero who, of course, should be, as it is now fashionable to say, “more demographically representative.”
The film was directed by Cary Fukunaga, the creator of True Detective, and I must say that this is the first film with Bond – Craig, which I liked since the reboot of the franchise with him in the movie “Casino Royale”. I liked the first film with Craig, but then some kind of solid green melancholy went on: a very mediocre “Quantum of Solace”, a very stupid and dull “Skyfall Coordinates”, well, a specific crap called “007: Spectrum” – while watching it, I I realized that Bond not only needed to be buried, but he had already buried himself, and a long time ago.
However, by the end of the agent’s “shake but not mix” adventures, they still swayed: the last Bond is quite watchable, although, as usual, it was very long-over-tightened (at the traditional scene at the factory, half an hour could easily be cut off), and the script here, of course, is replete with traditional Bondian idiocy, absurdities and all sorts of clichés.
Craig himself, apparently, was clearly very inspired by the fact that he put on a Bond suit for the last time, and he’s just alive and generally cheerful here, but in the previous film he was so dull that when looking at this Bond, you wanted to, so that some Blofeld finally finishes him off, because – well, how much longer will he suffer?
Léa Seydoux looked pretty good as Madeleine. In the last film, I almost didn’t remember her because of the incredible wretchedness of the picture itself, but here it’s just pretty. And Bagel and I did not believe that Madeleine could betray Bond – no, she is not that kind of girl, we trust her!
Rami Malek diligently portrayed such a main bastard, such a main bastard, who is just infernally villainous, but due to the cardboard nature and, again, the absurdity of the character himself, Bublik and I did not really believe him. But Rami tried, yes, this cannot be taken away from him.
The new 007 in the person of Lashana Lynch is completely useless. A kind of female version of Wesley Snipes, only without charisma and without a sports uniform. No, I understand that, firstly, an African American, and secondly, a woman is already ten pluses in karma compared to Bond, but if they seriously consider her as a new Bond, then the flag in their hands and the drum in “New Ethics”, because then it will be possible to bury not only Bond, but the entire franchise. But the studio paid money for the franchise, and solid.
I liked Miss Moneygroop (Naomie Harris): she is both charismatic and spectacular. And paired with Bond looked much better than this Nomi. And Ana de Armas in the role of Paloma is generally a class: beautiful, bright, and she fights so that just hold on! However, she had such a spectacular dress that she could not fight – the enemies themselves would fall in piles.
Any minor roles were very small (Felix Leiter was criminally small, which is a pity), and one of them can be noted Billy Magnussen, who played a very muddy boy Logan Ash, who at first seemed to be for the CIA, but from his nasty smile it was clear that the Cossack- then obviously mishandled!
With all sorts of chases, fights and special effects in Bond, everything is traditionally good, and here, too, there is something to watch on the big screen: car races and the corresponding rubilovo at the beginning of the film, the kidnapping of Obruchev, Bond with Paloma in Cuba, battles in the Norwegian forests, and, well, the final rubilovo they were made perfectly at the factory, and I didn’t regret at all that I went to the cinema to see this film, where I pretty much tired my somewhat worn body with a bucket of popcorn.
However, I went to the picture primarily in order to show it to Young Catalan, because I did not expect anything from the next Bond, but it turned out that I even liked this business. By the way, we did not watch “No Time to Die” in Spanish, but watched it in the original with Spanish subtitles, since one such session was found in our cinema.
What is the conclusion? Well, at least the James Bond character was buried quite decently, the aftertaste remained decent, which is already good. I’m not at all interested in the further continuation of the franchise, but if suddenly they manage to do something decent – well, honor them then and praise, but I don’t believe in a successful continuation at all.
So, in my opinion, it makes sense to watch this film out of nostalgic considerations about the entire completed line, remember all the best films, and then commemorate James Bond as such in all his acting guises (we will not traditionally remember George Lezenby) with a glass of martini vodka, realizing that more of such a hero on the screen, we are unlikely to see. But because an entire era has ended, gentlemen, an era has ended.
No Time to Die review
Director: Cary Fukunaga Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, David Dencik, Jeffrey Wright
Budget: $250M, Global gross: $447M
Action, UK-USA, 2021, 163 min.