No Time to Die

My expectations were high because:

• Cary Fukunaga
• the runtime
• it's Daniel Craig's finale
• COVID delays gave them time to polish it up, and I figured this would relieve typical studio pressure on the director
• I saw one moment of one trailer that had several four-star ratings on the screen and some blurb like "A MASTERPIECE"

To me, this all pointed to a great Bond movie, deeper and darker and artsier than the rest. I expected grander scope and a more serious and profound tone than the historically shallow franchise.

I was disappointed. The only thing that set this one apart was the bitter end, which actually haunted me. Otherwise it pandered like the last few. My disappointment didn't take long to ramp up -- even the prologue, and especially soon after it, felt cheap. I can imagine a film in which Bond is a legendary agent, the villain is disturbed, the girl is worth a swoon, and everyone is still human. Casino Royale was the closest, although my memory of Quantum is dim, and it might compete. I mostly remember the Hollywood inauthenticity ratcheting with everyone's beloved Skyfall. Last I saw Quantum, okay, maybe it was forgettable, but I remember it felt so much more authentic. It felt like classic Bond -- not like I need a series of Oscar-winning villains one-upping the last, going higher and higher in meta-levels of this criminal organization while going higher and higher in abstracting what crime means to them. At a certain point it just feels stupid. I say this with love and frustration. At least, as I recall, Quantum was grounded, even if the villain was forgettable. Isn't the studio self-aware enough to modify this ridiculous trend of spacey villains? Forget Bond not feeling human -- at least his humanity is attempted, unlike these villains'. On the contrary, they're increasingly alien. This can work for some movies, but it just feels silly here. Sauron and Voldemort and Palpatine are alien, but those are fantasies, and the opposing forces are also alien. Their otherworldliness is inspiring. But we're supposed to connect with James, his flaws, and his romances. Whether or not this works, it sets a foil that makes the villains feel absurd. It isn't subtle. If the studio is aware, they must not care. Is Malek aware? Doesn't he feel silly?

Other things I said in other outlets:

"I don't think it was the worst Craig movie... I thought it would be subtler... There were a lot of cheap elements, which is to be expected to a degree with Bond, but I thought this one would be more mature and creative... The villains' parts feel overwrought at this point... The ending was a little heartbreaking to me. I'm kind of haunted by that image of him looking up at the missiles. Seeing Bond face death felt like I was facing death to a degree... If I bought his relationship with Madeline more, this movie would have been much more powerful. A lot of it centered around her, but for example my dad completely forgot she was in Spectre, so afterward he was like "who the hell was that girl, it was almost like they had a relationship before this movie!" Point is this movie relied too much on that relationship, but they hadn't sold it well enough to the audience I think. The movies since CR have been so underwhelming, I care more about CR characters than anything since. E.g. I almost care more about Felix than Madeline, just because he's reminiscent of CR. It's not necessarily Madeline's fault -- she was just the Bond girl for a less memorable period... I'm assuming the new 007 from this movie will be the new star of the series?... Hopefully it gets relevant again. Just a little sad it can't be Daniel Craig. I like him. They had four chances to let him live up to CR, but that never happened, and I don't think it's his fault."