Tuesday, November 21, 2023

No Time to Die

No Time to Die; action thriller, UK / USA, 2021; D: Cary Joji Fukunaga, S: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz 

Madeleine Swann, a little girl, sees how her family is shot by Safin, as revenge because her father killed his family, under orders of Blofeld. However, Safin spares Madeleine. Twenty years later, James Bond is in a relationship with Madeleine, now a psychiatrist, but after Spectre tries to assassinate him, he ends all contact with her, falsely assuming she betrayed him. In the present, Spectre steals a British secret weapon, a DNA-targeted gas with nanobots that can be programmed to kill a specific person based on his or her DNA. Bond joins the CIA, and then goes back to the service of MI6. He finds out Madeleine had a daughter with him. They go to an island in the Pacific where Spectre has a secret lab aiming to kill millions using the DNA-weapon. Bond keeps the roof of the lab open when the British rockets strike it, destroying it, but killing Bond with them.

The 25th James Bond, a one which completed Daniel Craig's six-movie entry as the famous british spy, "No Time to Die" is a good and highly unusual film, a one that shows how far the franchize strayed away from the first film entry, "Dr. No", almost 60 years ago. This isn't the typical James Bond anymore, but rather a post-modern science-fiction spy tragedy. The authors went into the territory many thought James Bond movies will never go—even more so than "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"—and thus it deserves credit and respect for its bravery: Bond's relationship and his fragile humanity here take the center stage, changing the formula considerably and adding new layers to the story. However, the ending isn't as emotional as one would have expected, and one cannot quite figure out why. Maybe because there is something calculative and mechanical to the writing, or because the humanization of Bond didn't go far enough. The action sequences are very good, though much more scarce and subdued this time around, whereas the emotional relationships and dialogues of Bond and his love Madeleine (very good Lea Seydoux) are not strong enough to be a worthy compensation. The nanobot DNA-targeted weapon is closer to some futuristic dystopia than a realistic element, yet it creates sufficient suspense. While the depressing and thrill elements cause a slight tonal imbalance, "No Time to Die" is one of the most interesting—and experimental—Bond movies, a one that subverts the expectations, but in a good and meaningful way. It also serves as a quality ending of the entire franchize.

Grade:++

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