Could’ve made this just 3 hours of Ana de Armas being dorky but you chose to bite the bullet on this one instead, MGM.
I think Cary Joji Fukunaga absolutely nails the action-packed momentum in No Time To Die, and Rami Malick’s spin on Brave New World and “omg Bond is a psychopath just like me!” credos are provoking for like one scene, but the heart of this movie didn’t seem to carry me throughout its near three-hour runtime; it’s cute at best, but to be the bind of three f**king hours? In another cut, I would’ve much preferred for every miserable scene that went similarly along the lines of “ooh there’s this secret Mr. Bond and you won’t be ready for it!” to have been wiped the f**k out, or at least not written to the point where they appeared like just an hour-long batch of trailer phrases advertising the third act proceedings that in no way justified these airy results. I mean, this whole affair of unwarranted glut is really unfortunate to me, because that first act, where we not only see how paranoid Bond still is of Vesper from Casino Royale (2006) but actually learn enough about Swann to finally empathize with her, is set up so so so well only for it to then expand into nothing more than a cheap downline of idealistic acceptances and minimal exploration or explanation of Bond and Swann’s present overcomings or growths, which only made its dreamy and eventually overplayed twist and turns more and more predictable as the film went along.
Howbeit, the quality of this final entry in Craig’s saga is on a noticeably higher spectrum when compared to Quantum of Solace (2008) and Spectre (2015), and I’d even go as far as to say it’s barely touching the ranks of Skyfall (2012). Like I said, Fukunaga’s enthusiasm for explosive set piece pandemonium and intensity is definitely going to be enough to please hardcore fans of this franchise, but yeah, I think this was a far from appropriate time to let the Craig legacy end; any longer and I think I’d likely be way more indifferent of Craig’s extensive chronology than I now am.
Verdict: C
“No Time to Die” is now playing in theaters.
Burning the Celluloid 
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