This writer sometimes likes to list his top five James Bond movies, partly to work out what makes a good one. The list currently runs as follows: 1. You Only Live Twice (1967); 2. The Spy Who Loved Me (1976); 3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969): 4. Casino Royale (2006); 5. Goldfinger (1964).
As you can see, Daniel Craig has already made it into the top five list with Casino Royale. So, does Craig’s new James Bond film No Time to Die (2021) make the cut?
Analysis of the top five yields the conclusion that a great Bond film should have a believable actor in the main role; a credible and clear plot; a scary megalomaniac villain and/or henchman; a large-scale battle scene; a lot of style, glamour and beauty plus a bit of travel; a good musical score/theme song; some gadgets that are not too electronic; a little bit of dry humour; some element of space; bizarrely having the Royal Navy in some way included; and, finally, have some genuine romance and human emotion.
However, trying to emulate a formula has its pitfalls – like making an audience think they have seen it all before. So, does this new movie fall into the trap of predictability? Well yes – and definitely no.
Daniel Craig and Léa Seydoux in No Time to Die (2019) Courtesy: Eon Productions/MGM
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, who took over after the creative differences-driven departure of Danny Boyle, the much delayed No Time To Die has a script written by a committee, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge. And to some extent it shows. The plot is, like many of the recent Bond adventures, overly convoluted and conspiratorial. Gone are the days when an eight-year-old could easily follow a James Bond plot. Likewise, the story will be about 40 minutes too long for those wanting to go to the loo.
The action is a mix of good and bad. The bad includes some rather samey stunts and gun battles, involving the ridiculously high body counts that are all too often seen in the action movies and shoot-’em-up computer games of today. Likewise, the Bond trope that the villain must have a secret concrete lair on an unvisited island. Boring!
Of course, modern Bond movies don’t have any nation state villains lest this makes the movie less marketable. So, no Chinese, Russian or Saudi Arabian bad guys, just mysterious evil non-state actors.
Much better, however, was the striking action scene where James Bond appears to do nothing while chaos rages all around him. The movie has other breath-taking moments and some very big surprises, including the start which will give children – plus a few adults – nightmares for years to come. It also has a very touching end that might even make you cry.
The story itself (minor spoiler alert) is very modern: aptly for this pandemic period it involves a genetically engineered bio-warfare weapon. Remi Malek plays Lyutsifer Safin, a physically and mentally scarred villain. And this lazy, and probably immoral, “facial disfigurement means a bad guy” idea does not stop there as Safin also has a wonky-eyed henchman.
Despite these criticisms, the movie definitely has some style, including the return of Bond’s well-armed classic Aston Martin DB5 car. And, of course, beautiful women abound. And yep – while it has no space content except for some satellite imagery – at least the Royal Navy does make a short appearance: a good sign.
No Time to Die is Daniel Craig’s swansong and it will be a sad departure for many. True, he was about two inches too short and too strawberry blond for the role, compared with past actors or with the description of Bond in the books. However, he proved to be a tough and resourceful hero, much admired by many in the audience: think of his swimming trunks scene in Casino Royale. More importantly, his portrayal did have a close approximation to Bond’s character in the books: a basically patriotic but slightly cynical secret agent trying to do down evil, albeit with a decadent taste in food, drink and beautiful women.
As we note James Bond’s love ’em and leave ’em seducer past, in this new adventure he is no longer a serial sexual philander since he has apparently found “the one” in the shape of Léa Seydoux. She has the unique beauty, intelligence and talent to convincingly play Dr Madeleine Swann – a good choice of love for our James.
As with previous Bond films there are no bare breasts or buttocks on show, but some plunging-back ballgowns do give a few glimpses of the attractive scapulae of Ms Seydoux and the beautiful Cuban actress Ana de Armas.
In a break with the past, although explicit sex and nudity is out, there is a bit of modern-day swearing and profanity. While James Bond’s taste in women holds up, his taste in product-placed beer has rather obviously not, although the semi-retired double-O agent does at least cover up his Heineken beer bottle label lest it causes embarrassment.
Daniel Craig’s Bond, like the character in Ian Fleming’s books, is lecherous, but not an out-and-out racist or sexist as some have suggested – even if some of Fleming’s casually snobby, racist and graphic “man view” descriptions are probably unacceptable nowadays. Nevertheless, if you set Dr No (1962) and perhaps Live and Let Die (1973) aside, there has long been an embarrassing lack of diversity in Bond movies. To make amends, this one has more black and female characters, including Lashana Lynch as a fellow secret agent. Likewise Ben Whishaw’s “Q” formalises his status as gay.
However, while the Bond film series is now trying its clumsy best to banish its sexist and diversity-lacking sins of the past, its audience’s ageism will never change. It wants young vibrant heroes rather than old ones. And so the 53-year-old Craig, whose lined face and greying whiskers have become obvious, did not surprise anyone when he decided to step down from the role. In doing so he avoided Roger Moore’s artistic if not financial mistake of going on for too long. At least with this film Daniel Craig goes out on a high.
In conclusion, No Time to Die can be seen as a good sequel to Casino Royale, ending the storyline of the Craig-Bond era. Although its worst bits echo the overused tropes from past Bond movies, it does, at least, learn from the emotions on show in one of the more excellent ones: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), even referencing its dialogue and musical score.
Like that film, this new movie has many surprises – ones that imaginatively describe some of the sorrows of life including those of bereavement and lost love. The Billie Eilish theme song is a bit weak, but this is mitigated by the undercurrent of Louis Armstrong’s famous song from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: “We have all the time in the world”. Well, James Bond might yet have this – if the writers and producers will let him.
Seradata Rating: Well done 007. Actually, you go one better with a score of 8 out of 10 – and some bits actually rate a 10. So does No Time to Die make this writer’s top five? Well, let’s just say it makes the top ten. It is not quite as good as Daniel Craig’s excellent first outing in Casino Royale – which, by the way, might have been even better if it had followed the book and named the Russians as the bad guys (it was made before the Litvinenko poisoning). Nevertheless, No Time to Die is on a par with the very good Skyfall (2012). It is recommended, if you can avoid Covid-19 or any other bio-hazard to go and see it. For it really is no time to die.
Post Script: Other films in the Bond series that fall outside the top five but deserve a special mention include: From Russia With Love (1963) – who could forget the violent fight between Sean Connery’s 007 and Robert Shaw’s Red Grant on a train? Dr No (1962), with the mesmerising Ursula Andress emerging from the sea and the chillingly cold-blooded silenced pistol killings? Or how about the landing of an RAF Vulcan bomber in the sea in Thunderball (1965)?
More recently, the shoot-out with the psychotic Javier Bardem and his men, along with its sad denouement, made Skyfall (2012) very memorable. Even the cheesy Roger Moore-era offering, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), had its fun gadgets such as the rapidly assembled golden pistol, the famous third nipple, and its flying car. Diamonds are Forever (1971) and the ridiculously unrealistic Moonraker (1979) had some impressive space lasers.
