Where else could the long-awaited No Time To Die arrive but in London? At its glittering Royal Albert Hall premiere, the delayed 25th James Bond adventure finally made its way to the big screen, after years of waiting and speculation.
Exiting 007 Daniel Craig was able to celebrate his last turn as the character on the red carpet, alongside those other bastions of conservative British values the royal fam. Judging from the film’s earliest reviews, No Time To Die is an entertaining if long send-off, giving Bond some surprising new moments whilst still falling into the same loveable cliches and twisty, world-destruction plotting as past entries.
Scroll to read our round-up of the first opinions on No Time To Die: UK critics seem to be stirred and not too shaken up.
Pros and cons
In general? “Raise a martini”, celebrated Empire Magazine in a four-star write-up: “This is a Bond film that dutifully ticks all the boxes—but brilliantly, often doesn’t feel like a Bond film at all.” I don’t know why a Bond fan would want to see a Bond film that “brilliantly” doesn’t feel like a Bond film, but there you Bond.
The raves continued on Punch Drunk Critics, where No Time To Die “exceeds all expectations” as “possibly the best film of the Craig era”. Meanwhile, The Guardian called No Time To Die “an epic barnstormer…delivered with terrific panache”, whilst warning of a convoluted “headspinning world of giant plot mechanisms” as its story unfolds.
That complex final act was a sticking point in many early reviews. The Hollywood Reporter found that No Time To Die “ultimately delivers” whilst still complaining that the film’s “big issue…is that the path to Craig’s momentous departure is drowning in plot.”
One uniformly negative review calling No Time To Die a “disappointment” came from Forbes, with critic Scott Mendelsohn claiming that the film’s final third, “both wanders aimlessly into endless arbitrary run-and-shoot action while trying to make Bond into something he isn’t and frankly never needed to be”.
The last of Daniel Craig as Blond Bond
Perhaps the most buzzed-about and roundly appreciated aspect of No Time To Die is in how the film showcases the last of Daniel Craig’s work as Bond.
“Craig may well have delivered the most complex and layered Bond performance of them all”, gushed The Wrap, and Clarisse Loughrey even felt Craig may have been too good: “He is brilliant in No Time to Die, in a way that outshines everything around him.”
We’ve all heard the actor’s complaints about returning to the character, but apparently his last screen portrayal shows only appreciation: “It’s clear that Craig knows and loves this character and that shines through”, Digital Spy have claimed.
How’s Rami Malek’s villain?
The recent Oscar-winner seems to have mostly confused critics as bio-warfare villain Safin, dubbed a “grab-bag of character motivations” by The Playlist and “not the most cogent bad guy ever” by the Evening Standard. Entertainment.ie, however, allowed that the actor “seems to be enjoying playing the villain, and that glee is infectious”.
It sounds like Malek’s evil plan could be one of the contentious elements of No Time To Die, that caused director Cary Fukanaga and his team to cut and re-cut the film since filming back in 2019. Forbes suggested that the “underwritten and almost incidental role feels entirely left on the cutting room floor”—perhaps a sign that Safin’s ‘global virus’ scheme had to be subtly swerved away from depicting real events too closely.
What’s next for Bond?
According to the Evening Standard, the future of the franchise could rest in its compelling supporting characters. New double-0 Lashanna Lynch is praised as “a charismatic scene-stealer in Captain Marvel [who] goes one better, here”, and critic Charlotte O’Sullivan also begged: “Please, please, please, can someone give Q (Ben Whishaw) his own spin-off movie?”
Ana De Armas, as Bond’s ally Paloma, got some positive attention from THR: “The character begs for a recurring role in future instalments”.
No Time To Die has left critics nervous for the next Bond actor: “Whoever’s next has got one hell of job on their hands”, The Wrap warned. But mostly, the film’s early reviews focused on its blend of modernity and legacy. The Scotsman noted that “call-backs to the Bond mythology are fun yet resonate on a deeper level”, and The Guardian optimistically wrote that “the 007 franchise-template is still capable of springing a surprise on the fanbase”.
Need one final bit of evidence that No Time To Die manages to make fans happy? The smile on former Bond, George Lazenby, in the sweet tweet below.
Since it wasn't feasible for me to be in London for the World premiere I got to see the new Bond here in LA. Interesting choices of music I must say 😊 @007 pic.twitter.com/JVx2z5ST4G
— George Lazenby (@lazenbyofficial) September 28, 2021
Australian audiences can finally see No Time To Die in cinemas this November 11: make time to see it (and maybe even come up with your own opinions on Craig, Malek, and the rest) around then.
