(Though have you ever noticed that the supervillain performances in Bond films age less well than almost anything else about them?) There’s an excitement, a high-wire grandeur to the whole last act of “No Time to Die.” It really is about Craig’s 007 going the distance, upping the stakes - not just for the world, but for himself. And not just because I apparently liked Rami Malek more than anyone else did, finding him superlatively creepy. I think it’s telling that even a non-fan like yourself thought the first hour was relatively gripping, and the last 45 minutes, to me, is pretty close to popcorn heaven.
That said, the film uses its length to enhance the quality - rare for the Bond series - of an emotional journey.
OG: Well, rather than get all defensive on you, I’ll say this: As a fan of “No Time to Die,” I acknowledge that the movie is too long. Whereas “Skyfall” built on the character’s backstory, raising the stakes for exciting new action scenes, this one crams the best material into the first hour and then spends the rest of the time paying off a series of unconvincing threads set up by the stylish yet unsatisfying penultimate entry, “Spectre.” I never believed that Bond would walk away from Her Majesty’s Secret Service to be with Madeleine (Léa Seydoux), and now we find Blofeld (over-actor extraordinaire Christoph Waltz) masterminding a lame scheme from a maximum security prison. Despite a running time that rivals “The Last Emperor,” the movie somehow skimps on what I expect from a Bond movie. It’s an uncanny coincidence that the movie finds its otherwise forgettable villain (Rami Malek) trying to engineer some kind of dastardly “plandemic.” And it’s kind of perfect that this chapter closes the loop on the Daniel Craig cycle of films begun with “Casino Royale,” which effectively rebooted the character, making him a more single-minded killing machine with a capacity to develop emotional connections to the women he seduced (or have the women been seducing him this time around?).Īs excited as I was to experience the finale - and as certain as I am that the world shares my enthusiasm - I gotta say, “No Time to Die” was a letdown for me. So yes, “No Time to Die” could end up being the highest-grossing movie to have opened since COVID-19 struck. From the imaginative gadgets to the globe-trotting exploits, the entire franchise is calibrated to maximize the in-theater experience. I obsessively caught up with every one of his prior adventures and eagerly awaited each new installment on the big screen. I discovered the series when I was 9 years old, just as a new guy (Timothy Dalton at the time) was taking over the role.
Peter Debruge: You know, Owen, James Bond is the reason I got hooked on movies. (The fact that we’ve had to wait an entire year for it is the icing on the anticipatory cake.) I think it could be a smash - but beyond that, it could mark the paradigm shift to where movie culture comes roaring back. The words “James Bond” are, of course, synonymous with escapism - but “No Time to Die,” by wrapping up the Daniel Craig cycle of Bond films in floridly ambitious high style, with a death-defying romanticism that makes it, to me, the best of the Daniel Craig 007 films since “Casino Royale,” now has the chance to be the Big Movie For Adults that we’ve been waiting for. There have been genuine hits, like “F9” and “A Quiet Place Part II” and “Black Widow” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” Nevertheless, it’s no insult to those films to say that they’ve all been unabashed pieces of roller-coaster escapism pitched to a youthful demo. For months now, even as movie theaters have slowly stirred back to life, we’ve been asking when a film would come along that could break the dam of trepidation and anxiety that so many viewers still feel - understandably - about the prospect of going back into a crowded movie theater. Owen Gleiberman: “No Time to Die” arrives at a special moment. Warning: This dialogue includes major spoilers. Variety chief film critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge discuss the end of the Daniel Craig cycle, the legacy of Bond, and whether 007 can really live twice. The release of “ No Time to Die” marks a key turning point - for moviegoing in the pandemic era and for James Bond.