At two hours and 43 minutes, “No Time to Die” is the longest movie in the Bond franchise, which is a feat given that almost all of the other 24 films, even the best ones, feel at least 20 minutes too long as it is. This is a Bond movie where we don’t hear Billie Eilish‘s Grammy-winning title song until nearly a half-hour in!
“No Time to Die” picks up directly after the open-ended finale of “Spectre,” where Bond (Craig) rode off into the sunset with love interest Madeline Swann (Léa Seydoux), apparently finished with the superspy life for good. Bond is known for his uneasy endings. Gunslingers rarely rest for too long. This final chapter begins with secrets, the primary currency in Bond’s world. Bond cannot fully commit to a relationship with Swann until Vesper Lynd has left him with baggage. Swann also still has some details about her past with Mr White (an ex-Quantum/Spectre villain), that Bond is not privy to.
Bond is forced to retire due to this impasse, but he is reintroduced when his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), needs him to help hunt down a Russian scientist (David Dencik), which both the CIA (MI6) are after. Bond, a rogue, returns to the action and crosses paths with new characters such as Paloma (Ana De Armas), new 007 Nomi Lashana Lynch, and old foes Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), and the mysterious new Big Bad (Rami Malek). It’s a complicated, long, and circular piece that takes you back to Craig’s beginning, while also moving the franchise forward.
Fukunaga brings a lot of the kinetic energy that made his first season of “True Detective” so special, so the action is largely on point and feels livelier than it did in Sam Mendes’ last two efforts. His work here doesn’t have the visual flair cinematographer Roger Deakins brought to “Skyfall,” but he replicates some of the choppier brutality Marc Forster went for in “Quantum of Solace” with considerably better legibility in the shot-to-shot construction. It’s fascinating to watch a director put himself in the most expensive project he has ever done without losing any of the urgency he had with his earlier films.
The backstage star is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who brings a refreshing and lightheartedness to proceedings, considering how dreary and slow this film would otherwise have been due to its heavy subject matter. Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge have written every Bond film over the past 22 years. Each Craig movie had an additional screenwriter whose job was to expand on the structure and add more nuance and panache. WallerBridge is sharper anwittierty than scribes John Logan or Paul Haggis.
Waller-Bridge brings a lot to the table. There will be much to be written about how a Bond movie could work post-#MeToo. However, it is not just Waller-Bridge’s treatment of the female characters. Nomi, Paloma and Swann feel more fleshed-out and lived-in than Bond girls in the past. Bond, however, is also more fleshed out and lived in than the Bond girls.
The movie feels bloated despite all the character work and the action that the franchise has expected. Craig’s departure is worthy enough to warrant the screen time.