No Time to Die

If we don't do this there'll be nothing left to save!

Most previous James Bond actors haven't even known that they were starring in their last film and even if they did, it wasn't really a farewell as the next film would just be a continuation. Daniel Craig's era has been different though as it rebooted the franchise and has told one continuing story. No Time to Die then had to be a farewell to this incarnation of the character. 

The film opens with Bond having retired but he soon gets called back into action by Felix Leiter when a secret laboratory is attacked and something is stolen with the help of one of the scientists. As Bond heads to capture the scientist, competing with newest 00 agent to do so, he discovers what has been stolen and must race to stop villainous Safin from weaponizing it.

The biggest issue with the film is the villain. There's nothing much wrong with Rami Malek's performance as Safin but the character doesn't actually appear a great deal. He also has no real connection to Bond and they only meet briefly twice. There's an attempt to weave him a backstory to explain his motivations which only half works and his plan is pretty vague other than the fact it will kill lots of people. 

Other than that though, it's great. Even the weaker Craig-era Bond films have had some fantastic action sequences and this is no different. There's a really excellent chase sequence before the credits in a beautiful Italian town where Bond is utterly surrounded but has no real problem getting out of it. There's another tense chase sequence in misty woods which is genuinely thrilling and the classic Bond climax of infiltrating a villain's secret lair and saving the world at the end. 

Other than issues with the villain, I thought the plot worked well. One of the biggest issues with Spectre was the way it contrived to tie together characters and plot points from the previous films and though this certainly does that it feels much more simple and meaningful. Every surviving major character from the previous Craig films returns here and all with good reason. There's great turns from Felix Leiter, Q and a morally ambiguous M though sadly Moneypenny doesn't really have much to do. The new characters are great with Lashana Lynch making for an excellent 00 agent. Ana de Armas is fantastic here too so it's a shame that her role is so brief, effectively just one long scene. 

James Bond is hardly known for his emotional range and it's been a particular theme of Craig's films that his Bond shows very little emotion. That all changes here though and we get by far the most emotional Bond yet. We see the strength of his relationship's with several characters and this powers the film with every fight and every scene affected by emotion and personal stakes. For this reason I think this is Daniel Craig's best performance in the role as he deftly balances the tough killer we've come to know with the great emotion the character is facing. 

As a farewell to this version of the character it works extremely well, with all the ingredients of a Bond film done well with an emotional range that the franchise has never seen before.