NO TIME TO DIE review: Daniel Craig hangs up the James Bond tux with a dreary finale

Daniel Craig has made no secret of his wish to move past the James Bond franchise after playing 007 since 2006’s Casino Royale, at one point even exclaiming that he’d rather slash his wrists than don the tux again. Craig can now ditch the abs-trainer and break out the sweatpants with the impending release of No Time to Die, his long-delayed last outing as the U.K. super-spy.

After numerous delays due to the pandemic, No Time to Die finally hits theaters on October 8. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective), No Time to Die is the first new Bond film since 2015’s Spectre, and mostly plays out as a direct sequel to that film, for better or worse.

Without delving too deep into the film’s incredibly convoluted plot, No Time to Die starts off with Bond living the dream. He’s retired from the Service following the events of Spectre, but quickly gets pulled back in to help track down a missing Russian scientist responsible for the creation of a devastatingly powerful new weapon.

In a hit to Bond’s ego, his 007 designation has been reassigned in his absence. Working with the new 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch), and a CIA operative (Ana de Armas) the group races to track down the missing scientist while a scheming villain (played by Rami Malek) hunts them at each and every turn.

Craig’s Bond run has become a vast inter-connected world populated with nearly as many characters as the MCU, and No Time to Die takes great pains to try to integrate as many of them as possible into this sprawling film. If you have the time (or inclination) to revisit the Craig Bond films ahead of No Time to Die, you’ll likely get much more out of it than someone who saw Spectre once on opening day six years ago (speaking from personal experience).

If you’re not extremely well-versed in the Daniel Craig Bond world, much of this film will be nearly incomprehensible. Say what you will about the Marvel or D.C. films, but even the sequels do a serviceable job of catching new viewers up or reminding them of certain key events. No Time to Die has no time for any of that.

Apart from assuming the audience’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Craig Bond films, the main issue with No Time to Die is how self-serious and dreary the whole film is. Beautifully shot on 35mm and 70mm, the film looks incredible, from stunning European vistas to the nearly obligatory action sequence in a dated Russian factory that looks like something out of a Call of Duty game. Unfortunately, those visuals are in service of a film that seems determined to be extremely serious at all costs, even with plot twists as ridiculous as anything in the recent Fast and the Furious films.

No Time to Die seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. You can almost feel the distaste Craig has for the role at this point seeping out of the screen. He seems completely disinterested, apart from a handful of emotional moments with his partner, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). Alongside Craig’s stiff performance, the film has an unrelentingly somber tone throughout. Even with a couple of quippy one-liners (perhaps added in by the great Phoebe Waller-Bridge who was one of four screenwriters for the film), No Time to Die is a slog to get through. It’s unrelentingly violent, but not in a fun action film way. There’s an entire sequence where Bond proceeds to methodically shoot countless villains in the head as he moves through to his target. There’s no sense of thrill or excitement; he seems just as bored as the audience at that point.

There are a few bright spots and some fun to be had, mostly in the film’s rousing opening segments. But once the main storyline kicks in, a grim and dreary haze falls over the entire proceedings that lingers right through the film’s final moments. Fukunaga knows his way around action sequences, but fails at capturing any sense of humanity with this massive cast (the usually dependable Malek is woefully miscast here). The bloated script is more interested in making past connections to prior films than focusing on what makes Bond appealing to fans in the first place. Here’s hoping the next 007 gets back some of the levity and charisma that has kept this franchise shooting straight for the last 50+ years.

No Time to Die is in theaters on October 8, 2021.