Movie Review: No Time to Die (2021)

No Time to Die (2021) directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

James Bond (Daniel Craig) has retired from the spy's life. He's become world-weary after a visit to Vesper's grave (his girlfriend in Casino Royale) turns into an assassination attempt. He was there with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) and he thinks she was working for his nemesis, SPECTRE. He retires but gets dragged back in when Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) needs help infiltrating a Cuban meeting of SPECTRE. The British and the Americans are trying to hunt down a new weapon called Heracles and the scientist who operates it. The scientist was kidnapped by SPECTRE from a secret MI-6 lab, so M (Ralph Fiennes) knows more than he's admitting to. The situation gets more exciting and complicated as the story rockets along.

The movie is very atypical for a James Bond film. The opening sequence, usually a throw-away bit of action and excitement, is a slow-burn horror with 007 nowhere in sight. Once that's done, viewers do get the excitement of the graveyard assassination and subsequent chase scene. The movie has plenty of amazing action scenes and exotic locales that are more typical for Bond. But then the weapon and M's dubious motivation and judgment does not follow the typical pro-United Kingdom tone of most Bond films. Like Casino Royale, Bond has a character arc in the film. He's much more three-dimensional than the Bonds of the Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan eras. The ending is extremely atypical but very satisfying for the story the filmmakers are telling here. 

Recommended, even though this is a much bigger departure than On Her Majesty's Secret Service for a Bond film. If you are looking for mindless action fun, this is not the film for you.