Looked at this movie, in a theater, earlier this week. (No Time to Die is also out on demand and should be on home video before Christmas).
I thought this was a decent film. I already knew the spoilers going into it, so I wasn't really surprised by what happened in the story. I thought Craig was very good in his last time in the role and the cinematography and action were good. I think most of the regular supporting cast was back, including Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, and they all did well in their roles.
Spoiler (click to reveal)
I wasn't a fan of Lea Seydoux's Madeline Swann in SPECTRE, but I thought she was a bit better here. I still am not a fan of the Bond-Swann relationship, but I accepted it for what it was. No Time to Die is pretty much a sequel to SPECTRE, and if you liked that fan I assume you'll like No Time to Die a lot.
Much internet angst was made over Lashana Lynch's Nomi, who some fans believed would be replacing Bond.
Spoiler (click to reveal)
No Time to Die starts out with Bond retired, some five years after SPECTRE; sometime between films, Nomi becomes the new Double OO7, but she never really replaces Bond. I was surprised by how underwhelming the character turned out to be. From the trailer I thought she would be one upping and dominating Bond, while putting him in his toxically masculine place, but as it turns out, Bond basically one upped her, she wasn't that competent, and she gave him back the Double 007 title before the climax. I have to wonder if the studio panicked over the bad feeling over the film and changed Nomi's character and storyline. While she certainly does insult Bond and is trying to compete with him it comes off peevish and exposing of her own insecurities than the typical female empowerment emasculating Hollywood generally likes to do. That makes me wonder as well what role-if any-that race played into it, and if Nomi had been played by a white actress if the studio would've made sure to have her put Bond in his place.
It didn't escape my notice that both black female agents in the Craig era weren't really up to their jobs in the field. Nomi is better in that regard than Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), but she's also basically second fiddle with no really cool action scenes or breakout moments. I've seen much more talking and gushing about Ana de Armas' short, but energetic action scene in the film. I think Nomi should've been in that scene over de Armas, even though I thought de Armas was great. De Armas got to be glamourous, gorgeous, funny, and kick ass, whereas Lynch's sex appeal was toned down and we didn't really get to see her really let loose, to show why she deserved to be the new Double 007. I also felt there was no time spent to explain Nomi's change of heart toward Bond. Perhaps there's a director's cut out there where the scenes I imagine exist actually do. I thought there were some scenes where Nomi did look cool, sleek, and stylish, but not enough, and definitely no breakout scenes that left me thinking they were setting her up for a spin off. It's unfortunate because from what little we got of her, I do think Lynch could carry a spin off or a separate film. Though they would really need to develop her character more to make that work.
Rami Malek's villain was another disappointment. He worked halfway.
Spoiler (click to reveal)
Safin killed all of SPECTRE about halfway through the film, and that was a cool scene (as was his first scene when he killed Swann's mother). But after that they didn't know what to do with him and he turned out be as lackluster a villain as Blofeld was in SPECTRE. He stole this weapon that could kill people via their DNA, but they were skittish to make his motivation a racial one. There's one hint, by the scientist helping him, but it came somewhat out of left field and I think was an attempt to give Nomi a 'moment'. I wish they had been more explicit that Safin wanted to wipe out races/ethnicities that he found undesirable, but I guess the studio was too afraid to go there. Instead they left his end goal a bit muddled and him blathering about being some kind of god. Safin's obsession with Swann also needed to be explained better. I don't know why the Craig films have had this villain issue. I think they've done better with more middlemen villains than the masterminds like Blofeld and Safin.
Spoiler (click to reveal)
One of the biggest, most controversial aspects of this film is the ending where Bond dies. I'm not a Bond diehard so it didn't destroy my childhood, though I still wish there had been some way for Bond to cheat death. But I think it works for Craig's Bond because his five films now are a complete story. And Craig made sure there was no way even he could be compelled to do another film.
Ranking the Craig Bond films (best to worst):
Casino Royale
Skyfall
Quantum of Solace
No Time to Die
SPECTRE
