And so, Daniel Craig closes out his 15-year tenure as the world's most famous undercover intelligence agent (wait, what?). It's been nearly six years since we saw him (in 2015's so-so Spectre) making this the second-longest gap between Bond movies in the franchise's history. Most of this was due to COVID, of course - the original release date was November 2019 - but securing the contractless leading man, switching directors and the production issues and injuries that plague every Bond film all played a role in the 23-month delay.
So is No Time to Die worth the wait? Is it an appropriate swan song for the character as well as the actor who portrayed him for a longer period than even Roger Moore?
Yes - but maybe not for everyone.
Beyond even a characterization or trope, Bond is an archetype, an institution. The 25 Bond movies produced by the Broccoli family are practically their own genre, and you tinker with that formula at your peril - and to the delight of a subset of moviegoers who want more than a rehash.
No Time to Die includes three or four things you have never seen James Bond do (or fail to do) before. I found this thrilling, but I kept picturing my late Dad reacting to Daniel Craig expressing a legitimate emotion other than anger by shaking his head and saying, "Not bad...but not Bond."
Every other Bond iteration has been largely episodic, returning to something resembling the status-quo at the end of each installment. Craig's run has actually sketched out an arc of sorts, starting with his investiture as a double-O agent with a license to kill in Casino Royale, and following through four films with themes of loyalty and betrayal, both organizationally with MI-6, Quantum and SPECTRE, and with the women in Bond's life, like Vesper Lynd and Madeleine Swann. As far as I know, no other Bond film has ever acknowledged a film as an actor's last prior to its release, let alone attempted to provide a satisfactory conclusion to that performer's residency.
So right away, some people (e.g. possibly people like my dad) will be disappointed that there is any sort of conclusion, regardless of whether that closure is good or bad.
Notwithstanding those objections, I think it is safe to say that NTTD is one of the better Bond movies. It touches back on every previous Craig outing and references or homages other classic Bond moments throughout the film. For example, moving from the signature Aston Martin DB5 winding its way through a scenic road in Italy to its interior for Bond to tell Madeleine "we have all the time in the world" put literal gooseflesh on my arms. (Let me say though, that I honestly felt that havng four different Aston Martins in a single Bond movie felt like a bit much - but that may be an unpopular opinion.)
All the things I personally want in a Bond movie are present in this one: an evil villain (or two), a menacing heavy, a diabolical plan and confident, competent femmes fatale. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga brings an artist's eye and a variety of shooting styles to the picture; we get the clear pans across scenic vistas and exotic locales, but handheld action sequences in a foggy forest or concrete tunnels feel appropriately claustrophobic.
Most notably, at 2 hours and 45 minutes (the longest Bond movie to date), NTTD feels briskly paced - we linger on poignant and declarative scenes in order to better soak them in but never overstay our welcome before moving swiftly on to another moment of rising tension or frantic action.
Hans Zimmer's score is brilliant (as anticipated), bringing fresh arrangements to familiar cues and orchestrations, which is fantastic when you consider he was another replacement for an outgoing composer.
Lashana Lynch is fantastic as Bond's replacement, with a balance of charm and menace to rival Connery's, but Ana de Armas is in the running for my all-time favourite Bond belle despite having only a brief turn in the spotlight as Paloma, a potentially overwhelmed new contractor who teams up with Bond in Havana via Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).
Rami Malek's villain Lyutsifer Safin is given great motivation and a surprisingly plausible origin, but whose megalomania and lack of scale drive him to the cartoonish end of the pool (move over Thanos) despite a measured performance; not quite a disaffected sociopath, nor someone who sees themselves as the hero, but whose ruthlessness feels omnipresent.
But, for a change, it's the story that feels like the real star here. All the cars and spy-fi flourishes are present, but there are moments of genuine emotional resonance and real tension where you know this is probably the last outing for this crew, so just how far are they willing to take the stakes? The writers (including Fukunaga) take pains to point out that Bond is an emotionally blunted individual but who has regrets and desperately wishes he could change, and we hear this from Bond's own lips, which felt extraordinary to me.
Like all the Bond movies since 2006's Casino Royale, No Time to Die puts far more emphasis on characters and action than on quips (fear not, there are still some to be had), but also tries very hard to stick the landing - and I think it does. But the very fact it has a landing, and draws upon four other films to achieve it, will probably disappoint folks like my dad, who want a simple adventure where the good guys and bad guys are easily distinguishable.
Even that morality, present but sometimes blurred in this most recent arc of films, gets muddied up a little in this one, with real questions being raised about what ethical lines remain in play when you are defending a nation - or the freedom that it ostensibly stands for.
In the final analysis, I think Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig and a host of others have left us with a wonderful subset of Bond films that have dared to be different and as a result, done what many said was impossible: successfully reinvented James Bond for the modern era, even after characters like Austin Powers have taken the mickey out of him. It's a pity Craig didn't have more of Ian Fleming's material to work with, but I think his nuanced delivery in Casino Royale, Skyfall and No Time to Die could see his Bond eventually enshrined alongside Moore's and Connery's.
Now to wait and see if EON Productions can do it all over again; I actually stayed past the end credits just to see these reassuring words on screen:
"JAMES BOND WILL RETURN"
No comments:
Post a Comment