No Time to Die, Film Review.

Previous final outings of the James Bond films of an actor playing the character are usually among the worst of the whole series. Films such as Die Another Day (Brosnan) and A View to A Kill (Moore) are among the weakest of the franchise.

No Time to Die is the best final outing for a Bond actor to this day in my opinion. It is a decent movie, not one of the best Bonds, but not one of the worst.

Acting. Daniel Craig delivers one of his better performance as James Bond. Craig is playing Bond as an older man and it shows in the film. He is still well able to do the action scenes in a convincing manner. The stand out performer was Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann/Bond, James Bond’s wife and love interest throughout the film.

Characters. James Bond, Madeleine and Safin are deliver an interesting story of revenge and demons coming back to haunt people. There are however, too many characters that are not needed in this story.

Villain. The main Bond villain is Lyutsifer Safin played by Rami Malek. Safin is a villain with vague motivations, is smart and capable, but physically he is nowhere near a match for Bond.

The second villain is a corrupt scientist played by David Dencik.

Bond Girl. This is the only story of the Bond film, which has James Bond as a married man. Bond does not womanise in this film, but he is playing an older man, so it kind of makes sense.

Plot. The plot is long, and tries to be different, in some ways, but is generic. The plot is best served, when dealing with the main conflict of the film, but the film is too long for the plot. I feel that it is a three hour film for a two hour plot. The film tries to tie together all the loose ends from the previous Bond films, and that was a mistake. Bond is better as stand alone spy thrillers, that are loosely connected to each other at best.

Is it worth a watch? Yes, despite the flaws in the film it is a decent film. The run time is nearly three hours and some of the action scenes drag a little. There is filler in the film, but the scenes of the main story are quite good. Three Stars.