 Daniel Craig is definitely not doing another Bond movie. In a super candid interview with Time Out while doing press for Spectre, Daniel Craig is asked if he'd want to do another Bond movie. His answer? I'd rather slash my wrist than play James Bond again. I can't believe you've got that written down there. Of course. Of course. I have a terrible memory. People have to write things down for me. So there was a time when you didn't want to be the next one. Look, there's no point in making excuses about it. But it was two days after I finished shooting the last movie. Sure. I went straight into an interview and someone said, would you do another one? Oh, OK. And I went, no. And instead of saying something with style and grace, I gave a really stupid answer. If you were asked 200 meters from the end of a marathon whether you'd run another marathon, you'd be fairly short and sweet about the answer. The burning question, will it be your last one? Who knows? Will this be your last? I don't know. I don't know. I just don't know. The honest answer is I don't know. I don't know. Daniel Craig, we could use some good news here. Daniel Craig, will you return as James Bond? Yes. You know, I could spend ages talking about the first couple of years after the release of Spectre. The uncertainty whether or not Craig would return to reprise the role of Bond. The usual nonsense rumors of Idris Elba or Tom Hiddleston being casted as the next Bond. But I have to admit, I felt a certain sense of relief when Craig announced his return for Bond 25. Even if it was just to put those rumors to bed of unlikely actors or even actresses stepping in to take over the role of Bond. But mostly because I always kind of felt Spectre wasn't going to be Daniel Craig's final Bond movie. They made it very clear this time around, though. This would be Craig's final one. The definitive ending of an era. The tying up of all the loose ends, as they kept calling it. Originally, Danny Boyle was brought aboard to direct Bond 25, partnered up with a screenplay treatment of John Hodge. Most fans were pretty excited about this, especially coming after a period of years of really no news to appetite our excitement for Bond. But eventually, Danny Boyle and Eon parted due to creative differences. This is something we fans are still speculating about to this day. Supposedly it had something to do with the ending of the film, which Danny Boyle apparently wasn't too keen on, but none of this has been confirmed until this day. Instead, we got Cary Fugunaga to direct the movie. Who? Which, to a lot of us, was a pretty unknown director by the time he was announced. It wasn't until 2019, four years after the release of Spectre, that we finally got a press conference. Welcome to GoldenEye Jamaica. For Mr. Bond, and no title, unfortunately. I was gonna ask. Dare I say, like, do we have a title but completely nothing at the moment? Bond 25. No, I can't remember the last time we had a title when we announced the beginning of the film. The Jamaica press conference. Despite its iconic location and officially announcing the cast to us, it was one of the weirdest Bond press conferences that we had. No title announcement, a weird presenter that nobody ever heard about, Mickey G claiming he can't even remember the last time he announced the new movie title at one of these, even though they did exactly that at the last press conference, or what about the one before that? And the one before that? Heck, I can't even remember the last time they didn't announce the title in this way. But whatever, it wasn't until months later that they finally announced the title to be No Time to Die on social media. A title I personally really had to get used to at first, mostly because it seemed pretty generic coming in in a long line of other Bond titles that include the word die in there. But it's been a long time since they first announced that title, so you could say it kinda grew on me since then. Most notably about No Time to Die's production period to me were two things. The outlandish rumors coming in all the time and the constant release date delays. Firstly due to brushing up the movie a little bit before release, but the later pushbacks were all because of the pandemic. As a Bond fan, this period ended up almost beating the longest gap between Bond movies since the six year gap between license to kill and GoldenEye. I don't hope to ever beat that gap, but this one got pretty damn close. I can't characterize this period as long, frustrating, and frankly, a bit concerning. Why? Well, obviously I can't speak for all Bond fans and in this sensitive political climate we seem to live in it seems way too touchy to even go there, but to a lot of Bond fans, the concerns for this movie had to do with things seeming to woke. Especially in a period where movies that were categorized as such seem to have really flopped. And again, I can't speak for all, but a lot of Bond fans were pretty concerned that No Time to Die was going to follow suit. I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't have any concerns myself. The constant promotion and pride of hiring a feminist screenwriter, Barbara talking about the importance of the Me Too era on the press conference, rumors of the 007 title being given to Lashana Lynch's character, who in the press seemed more concerned with the inclusion of a tampon in the movie to display realistic feminine issues and such. Thank heavens I didn't go with that idea. The name's Lashana, Lashana Lynch. I am so excited about this. Apparently Lashana is our new 007. And I stress this again, I guess to some people this kind of stuff is real progress and maybe I'm just old fashioned when it comes to my Bond. But having seen feminist and people bash our beloved franchise for years, despite it constantly updating itself and then seeing people who clearly don't care about the franchise to begin with, being so excited about a woman taking over the 007 title, it really isn't the stuff that excites me personally. It feels more like a political statement than an actual interesting story element. At the very least, I think most Bond fans have a very simple wish list. They want Bond to be the smooth sophisticated bastard, drive fast cars, get the girl, say the right lines and save the day. Now the talks among the fandom were more along the lines of, is he even going to be 007 again in this movie? Is he still going to be alive by the end of this? Will he even be allowed to sleep with someone in this political era? Of course, I'm all for the updating of the Bond movies to make them contemporary each time. I'm just saying the updating should always be there, but it shouldn't be the main focus and going overboard because Hollywood proved that updating to this extent isn't always the formula to success, at least in my opinion. In any case, by fall 2021, having waited six years and about a half a dozen delays, No Time to Die was eventually released to the public and we finally got the chance to see if our concerns held any merit and if No Time to Die had been worth the incredible long wait. I was so relieved to see the movie starting off with a gun barrel again, which was among our concerns for Spectre. I'm glad they kept that tradition here too and also that it was actually Bond walking into the gun barrel, not some other 00 agent we know is going to appear in the movie. For the first time though, there were two different versions of the gun barrel, with the US getting the traditional MGM logo beforehand and the international version getting the universal logo, dissolving into a huge wide circle followed by the signature white dots. I prefer the US version a lot more than that stuff. The gun barrel itself is again different to the traditional Maurice Binder type of black and white design that I still prefer to everything else. It has a very icy gray look and most notably, bang, blood dribbles down. There isn't any of that. I don't get it. It's such a signature part of the gun barrel and it's absent. Fans have theorized that this is due to the ending of the movie and such, but yeah. Anyway, I do like Hans Zimmer's soundtrack supporting it and Craig looks pretty slick in that tuxedo this time around. Overall, I can't complain too much. Jumping into the movie, you are greeted with beautiful cinematography of a snowy forest in Norway. If you are a Bond fan, you were actually already aware that no time to die was going to continue the storyline of Spectre, focusing on the continuation of the storyline of the Bond girl, Madeleine Swan. A man once came to our house to kill my father. Fans have been theorizing beforehand from the trailer that this was the man coming to her house in some flashback scene. And we were correct. French child actress Colleen DeVold plays the young Madeleine Swan and she's very well cast at bearing a striking resemblance to Leia Seydoux. It's moments like these that really feel like a fresh new take in Bond filmmaking. It's clear we're no longer watching a Sam Mendes Bond movie and although I like his direction too, a new take is very welcomed. We also get to Madeleine's mom, an alcoholic who doesn't seem to care that this strange mass dude is standing in her living room. I was kind of surprised to see that this is Madeleine's mother. I always assumed that the woman next to Mr. White in Quantum of Solace was Madeleine's mother. I guess he got remarried. Anyway, mass dude shoots the shit out of Madeleine's mother with a machine gun. It's quite a dark start to a Bond film. This ensues the moment we knew was coming from the childhood talk that Madeleine had in Spectre. He didn't know I was upstairs playing in my bedroom. Well, that papa kept a billet to nine millimeter and that is synced with the bleach. The child actress playing the young Madeleine is pretty convincing and I'm honestly immediately aboard here. Of course it turns out our villain is still alive and Madeleine runs off, ending up under the ice with the mass dude shooting at her. This helps us understand more of the trauma that adult Madeleine is dealing with. Who's out in Italy with the retired Bond following the events of Spectre. And you gotta hand it to Craig. He still looks damn good after all these years as Bond. He's probably the only Bond who looked just as fit in his first and final Bond movie. Something that can't really be said about any of the other Bond actors. Bond and Madeleine are driving the DB5 in gorgeous shots in a very dreamy sequence and we get this lovely little nod. Can you go faster? We don't need to go faster. We have all the time in the world. And meanwhile the Majesty's music is playing in the background to go along with it all, it's really well done and reminds you the filmmakers care about its own history and the fans. It really hit me in the cinema. I'm watching a new Bond movie here and the shots of Matera Italy as the DB5 drives in, oh, it's all just very beautiful. Because of a local tradition to burn the past, Madeleine and Bond decide to follow suit to truly open up to each other. Bond promises to let go of his past with Vesper if Madeleine lets go of the demons of her past which we just witnessed earlier on. So Bond visits Vesper's grave, which is conveniently also in Matera. Apparently she's buried with her parents who I guess are Italian now? In any case, it makes for what I think is one of the most emotional moments in the film. I miss you. To me, this tiny little line with the Vesper music playing in the background was more heartfelt and more of a moment of an actual moment of solace than the entirety of quantum of solace ever was. It's a lovely little moment for us fans after seeing him throw away that surveillance tape of her in the previous movie to see that Bond still cares this deeply about her after all this time. It's very heartwarming. It's a moment I wasn't expecting to happen in this movie. Neither was the moment following. I was happy they did not show that moment in any of the trailers because it genuinely came out of left field. So Spectre is back and Bond soon has to deal with his goons in the action scenes following. I think to me, this is the real shame about social media and all of the trailers nowadays because I've pretty much seen most of the stuff this action scene had to offer already before seeing the film. That doesn't take away that even though most fans already saw that bridge jump and the bike jump multiple times, it's all still pretty impressive. So Bond quickly ends up in a pretty exhilarating fight scene with Primo. I like the dynamic camera going along with this. Again, the direction feels very fresh and different. Primo makes it seem like Spectre is some mob family with this line. Bro, that's a sense he's at a guard. Most notable though is that Primo claims that Madeleine is the daughter of Spectre. You can see a variation of disbelief yet doubt in Bond's face as he finishes him off with the eye falling out and Bond is just like, huh? Oh well, taking your bike. Maybe because of the trailers and promotional material used, I was expecting a pretty major action scene with this bike. But apart from that cool stunt I talked about earlier, Bond really only uses it to get back to the hotel. No real complaint though, just used differently than I thought. As Bond comes back to the hotel, he confronts Madeleine about Spectre. She seems genuinely unaware of what is going on. The concept of Madeleine returning from Spectre as the first main Bond go reprising a role in a consecutive movie. It's pretty interesting in itself. I wasn't really that blown away by her in Spectre and I didn't really see why she happened to be the new woman Bond fell in love with after Vesper. Here, I think Leia's say-do gets much more to do and Madeleine's background plays a much more central role to the actual story. I do have to admit, and you'll see it throughout this review, I did warm a lot more to her character this time around. So Bond takes Madeleine into the DB5 to get out of there. This is the moment which I think is some great foreshadowing of later events. So the pair gets away and Madeleine gets a phone call from Blofeld with a neat little octopus collar ID included as you do. She's obviously framed to make it look like she's working for Spectre but never for a second did I believe she actually turned out to be on their side. Bond does. I guess for him it's Vesper all over again. So Bond and Madeleine end up in the middle of the square, boxed in by all the Spectre goons, shooting the crap out of the DB5. Again, Bond looks like he's ready to give up, not because he doesn't have any chances left, but mostly because he doesn't seem to care anymore. It's a pretty tense moment. The goons are shooting heavy machine guns at the bulletproof glass, Madeleine is screaming like crazy and Bond is just numbed out until he gets that tiny sprinkle of hope to save her. So he activates the badass button. Although again this was another moment spoiled by all the trailers, it has to be one of the coolest action moments in no time to die and the Gatling guns make for a fresh new gadget for the DB5. As due to the explosive spikes he used a bit earlier on, all of this is really badass. So Bond manages to make his escape and he takes Madeleine to the train station, gets her on a train and they part ways. It's another heartfelt moment, a very powerful opening, because you would almost forget, yes this was only the opening, the longest pre-title sequence yet, beating the one from the world is not enough, clocking in at nearly 20 minutes and I admit I thought Spectre had an amazing action-packed pre-title sequence too, but this, in no time to die, is a very all-round perfect one to whet your appetite, a cool flashback opening explaining Madeleine's background and foreshadowing our main villain, Bond and Madeleine in a romantic setting, beautiful locations, an emotional callback to Vesper, sudden turns of events with Spectre, spectacular action, and an emotional setup with the breakup between Bond and Madeleine. This is all top-notch stuff and I was completely abhorred for this. The title sequence starts with a neat little reference to the opening of Doctor No with all the collared circles. The Billy Eilis title song. I kind of like it. Yeah no, this song is not bad at all. I wasn't much of a fan of Sam Smith's whining ballad with the writings on the wall, but this one, it really grew on me. The lyrics are very powerful going along with the movie's story too, and Climbins visuals aren't too shabby either, more callbacks to previous Bond movies, the DB5 sinking into the abyss, Walter PpK's posing as DNA strings. It's all great, I really don't have much to critique this movie with so far, because all of this so far made for a solid start to the film. I was so ready to see what was coming up next. Um, I assume at the end of the pre-tile sequence in Italy, Bond and Madeleine get separated somehow. Maybe he assumes he gets killed or they get separated, and then the pre-titles showing him being by himself, or the time flying by basically. They'll use that montage showcasing like the time is moving along, and then after the titles, it's like five years later or something. So anyway, after the titles, we witness the raid of an MI6 laboratory, where we are introduced to scientist Valdo Oberchev, who is a combination between a plot device and a comic relief played by David Densik. Soon, however, Valdo gets a phone call from Saffin, our main villain, that Spectre is coming. For a moment upon first viewing, this makes you think that Saffin is yet another villain part of Spectre. You know, like all other main villains in the Craig era turned out to be, but no, Saffin is in fact a separate entity who just happens to have knowledge on Spectre, and wants this to happen for his own plans. So the special forces of Spectre come in and they are not messing around, blowing shit up, killing innocent scientists, kidnapping Valdo with a cool throwback to Dr. Now with their radiation suits, by the way, and killing more innocent scientists. A typical Tuesday for Spectre. Primo from the pre-title sequence also returns, and so does his eye. So the big reason Spectre are here is because they need to steal a bio weapon, by the name of Project Heracles, a dangerous weapon containing nanobots, which can be coded to an individual's DNA. They make an impressive escape through an elevator shaft, using a device spreading magnets around that enables them to briefly float before they fall. It's quite futuristic and quite rare to see Spectre goons be this professional, and you know, SWAT team-like. So the plot is set in place. Moneypenny has heard about the rate of the laboratory, and quickly warns M, who seriously looked like he was just having a sneaky little nap as he walks in, like, hey, oh, ah, shit, yeah, no, explosion, heard it, just a gas leak, which immediately shows us that M was in fact aware of the bio weapon's existence. Moneypenny, where's 007? And this cuts to Bond, who no longer is 007, insinuating us to believe he is talking about him. But as we Bond fans all knew beforehand, that wasn't going to be the case. Anyway, Bond is out in Jamaica, living the quiet life, casually strolling about with some big fish and a harpoon. It's a great little sequence to see Bond at his spiritual home with the whole Fleming connection. He soon finds a cigar, prompting him to know that Felix has been at his place. The cigar is a delictados, by the way, a neat little reference to Dynard Day. I'm here to pick up some delictados. Delictados? We haven't made delictos in 30 years. As Bond makes his way into town, we soon get a glimmer of LaShanna Lynch's character coming up. Shortly after, Bond is reunited with Felix Leiter, once again played by Jeffrey Wright, which I absolutely love. I really wish they kept that sort of continuation going with the older Felix's too. It's great to see him reprise his role after so many years. He's also joined by sort of an assistant, Logan Ash, played by Billy Magnuson. And I swear, my girlfriend in cinema immediately was like, that's the bad guy, no question. We soon move to a setting we rarely see Bond in. James Bond in A Night Club. Laughing with his buddy, drinking Heineken beer. Honestly, I always wanted to be like Bond. And here, he doesn't really make it that hard. I mean, he makes it look like he always wanted to be like me instead. So Felix tells Bond about the kidnapping of Faldo from the MI6 lab, and he wants Bond to try and find him. Supposedly, he's in Cuba now, where a specter meeting is about to be held. Bond doesn't really want anything to do with it, My boss is in the Reyjubik Iceland. That is where a specter is located. Cool. Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. I'm buzzed. So it's here where Bond runs into LaShana Lynch's character Nomi, who takes him on a scooter, posing as a chick he'd be interested in for a quick one night stand. But we all knew beforehand, oh did we knew, that things weren't going to go that way with this character. That's not the first thing I thought you'd take off. So you probably already gathered. I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of the character of Nomi. There was a lot of media hype around her being the new 007. I get it. She's supposed to be the new strong female lead, symbolically throwing out a femininity, making way for a level-headed intelligent character, putting Bond in his place with some sly remarks. By the way, I'm not just any old 00. I'm 007. A woman? You probably thought they'd retire it. It's just a number. Huh. Yeah. Now, maybe some people totally get a kick out of this stuff. To me, this type of writing makes her come off as deliberately annoying and childish. Instead of strong and professional, I could go on a whole rant as to why the 007 number isn't just a number to us Bond fans. But I feel every Bond fan watching this knows exactly why we hold that so close to heart. So my point would just be moot. But even looking at this twist objectively, it feels like even story-wise, it doesn't really add much interesting elements either. It feels much more like a political statement to give away his 00 number to a strong female lead who, and boy haven't we said this line way before, is Bond's equal. Who has the similar masculine traits and strengths that he has. To me, the best strong female leads are the ones using their femininity as an actual strength instead. Take Paula Patton in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, for instance. And you know, I think that unfortunately we've been told that to be feminine is something wrong or something that we shouldn't embrace as women. But I think femininity is a power that women have, because men don't have it. And we should embrace it. And we can still be very fierce and strong at the same time. So that was important for me to play a woman like that. To me, that is a far more engaging way to be progressive about strong female characters and really shine a light on them. And this came out a decade earlier than No Time to Die. So anyway, M has Q look into Valdo's hard drive. The electric S and Martin Valhalla, by the way, can be seen in the background. You know, it's quite ironic how this car was so heavily promoted as the new Bond car, but spoilers, it isn't even used in a movie. I'm not even the biggest fan of electric cars to begin with, so I'm not necessarily complaining. But isn't it kind of odd how this was featured in so much car shows and promotional material, and in the end it's mainly there just for window dressing in the background? Anyway, Bond has a hunch that M indeed was aware of the bioweapon Hurricleys, and that he kept Valdo on the payroll deliberately. You would almost think that M is in cahoots with the bad guys in this if you're watching it for the first time. Because of this, Bond agrees to work with Felix after all and find Valdo in Cuba. So Felix instructs him to meet up with his contact there. And it's here, where we are introduced to Cuban CIA agent Paloma, played by Ana de Armas. And, well, sees the character in a movie where pretty much the entire Bond community goes like this. And this entire sequence following honestly makes for one of the most fun scenes in the entire movie. There isn't a whole lot of Bond-like glamour in No Time to Die, but here it is fully present as Bond slips back into his intertuxedo to infiltrate the Spectre meeting alongside the gorgeous looking Paloma. It's a sequence that sounds really silly when you describe it. You see, it's Blofeld's birthday. And even though he's locked away in prison back in London, he's somehow present through another one of those bionic eyes that is brought in on a pillow. It's actually quite ridiculous when you think about it. So all of Spectre is somehow present in this one building in Cuba. You can even spot some Spectre characters that appeared in the previous movie, in the big Spectre meeting room. It's here where you get to see the Heracles buy a weapon in action, as Blofeld wants to kill Bond through the weapon, but Valdo, working for Saffin, programmed all of the Spectre members' DNA to be targeted instead, causing all of them to die. You know, it really makes me wonder if at some point in production this whole weapon was actually supposed to be a virus instead of nanobots, as it works in a very similar way, infecting people of Bond touch, etc. Maybe the filmmakers changed it to nanobots at a later stage when the real world was dealing with, you know, the pandemic. Who knows really. I obviously don't have anything to back this up with, but it's an interesting thought. So as Mayhem ensues, Bond spots his target Valdo, who quickly runs off. We get some more badass moments of Bond sipping a martini mid-action and kicking ass together with Paloma. And I'm totally down for this type of stuff. I really wish Felix went along for the trip himself to fight along these two. This is the stuff we came here to see. Bond being an absolute badass, sipping away strong drinks with a hot chick on his side kicking ass. The music ramping up as Bond goes into badass mode. I really adore Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for this movie. All of this stuff is just fantastic. Bond's using the machine gun as if it's just another everyday chore for him. Paloma kicking ass with her machine guns. It really makes you go, get out of here LaShana. I'm watching these two. Shoo, oh and of course she steals Valdo. Typical. It ends with Paloma driving a car into the scaffolding, which by the way is the same black Chevy Bond was seen in in Dr. No. Another quiet little nod to fans. So the parotry Valdo and soon Bond and Paloma part ways for what turned out to be her only screen time. Although we all knew from the trailers that we really were only going to see this character in this scene as she was only ever seen in that blue dress in all of the promotional material. But it makes her the first promising female character in a row to be one of the most interesting ones getting very limited screen time. It's a real shame because I feel there was so much more potential for her here. At least it makes you appreciate this sequence though.