Somehow,it has 83% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 224 reviews)
Runtime: A bloated 163 minutes
Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Starring: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes
From: Several different entities
Dou Dou
Yakov Smirnoff
Cuban Cigars
Heracles
All these vague terms can be applied to No Time to Die.
Those wondering in the United States how I saw this last night when it “officially” came out this afternoon at 4, across the country at 7PM yesterday there was an “early access” showing on IMAX screens. As it fit my schedule to watch it then anyhow, this is what I did. Now, the Daniel Craig Bond movies have never felt like the rest of the franchise (and after this one I don't know if the idea to have them be interconnected was ultimately a wise decision) yet most were at least fine and Skyfall was great. I thought that Craig should have bowed out after Spectre as it seemed like time to do something different. This being 163 minutes also gave me pause—turns out, it WAS too damn long. But that is not my main criticism.
I wish I could have loved this like many international audiences on Letterboxd already have; however, a lie can't be told by me. The first two acts were enjoyable, even if sometimes the humor seemed misplaced and more minor quibbles could be made, such as how this especially did not seem like a classic 007 adventure. Yet, the story was engaging enough, the cast was (mostly) capable and it had sweet-if not revolutionary-action scenes so I was along for the ride. That even takes into account someone having what sounded like a comically bad Russian accent to my ears, not to mention elements that suddenly made it clear to me why there were the first last March to delay releasing the movie once "The Black Plague" happened.
As for the Billie Eilish title song—at least it was better than whatever it was that Sam Smith did. But, it may be the first Billie song I've ever heard and I'd rather not hear any more.Then the final act happened... when one of the first things I did when arriving home was rush to Wikipedia to try and figure out some of the baffling aspects of the finale-and was not entirely successful at piecing it together-that is a major problem. So is me subsequently coming across disagreements over key plot points in the last 20 or so minutes.
Besides thinking it all fell apart by the end, the villain's motivations were ultimately a mystery to me-even more so than the fashion stylings of Ms. Eilish; hell, besides learning on Wiki that his name was spelled LYUTSIFER SAFIR (that sounds more like the lead bad guy for the upcoming The Expendables 4) I learned more about his alleged motivations there than what was presented on screen. At first he wanted revenge for something and that was certainly logical. After that-he might as well have been a Snidely Whiplash sort of bad guy who tied some woman to the train tracks. We learn more about 007 as a person and his struggles than before-was that really needed? That's not even taking into account ::redacted::, which allegedly has caused some in the fanbase to in essence rage quit the entire franchise. It did not make me that mad; it was more a puzzling decision than anything else. But to be frank, this is not even the franchise which has soiled the bed the biggest in recent memory.
I'm not mad; after all, it's not even the worst picture in the 007 canon. However, I am just disappointed this crashed and burned so late and I was not wooed by its charms like thousands have here on Letterboxd. Note that Ana de Armas in IMAX WAS something that wooed me-just don't expect her to have a huge role. All that being said, at least there are plenty of Bond movies for me to revisit-and not discuss here.
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