At one-hundred-and-sixty-three minutes, NO TIME TO DIE has set the record for the longest James Bond film ever, but don’t let that put you off, as the pace is on a par with the two hour extravaganzas before it. It also contains the longest ever pre-credit sequence (clocking in at nearly twenty-four of its’ length)
It is also one that will polarise opinion about the Bond saga and lead to much speculation about where they can go in the future, not least in three surprising twists (no spoilers here!) that Bond fans will be left wanting and wondering about for the future.
Completing the five-film arc of the Daniel Craig era which began with CASINO ROYALE in 2006, NO TIME TO DIE gets pretty dark after a lengthy pre-credit sequence (the longest exceeding the previous record held by THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999)) in which Bond and love Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) are found out and have to break up before making up the pace amidst the traditional worldwide crisis, this time involving a deadly project that may or may not have a bearing on Bond’s own superior M (Ralph Fiennes).
Retired from duty, Bond teams up with old associate Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to try and track down a dark foe in the form of Safin (Oscar-winner Rami Malek, one of the best villains of the saga). Alongside Bond are a feisty double-oh (Lashana Lynch) and a Latino sidekick (Ana De Armas, in good form, if a little underused). Q (Ben Wilshaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) also return.
With references to ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (1969), which starred one-off George Lazenby and which has grown to become one of the best loved and most faithful of the Bond adaptations from the original Ian Fleming source material, NO TIME TO DIE is nonetheless a fine addition to the series and a fitting farewell for Craig as he departs a role that was a controversial choice for himself at the original inception of casting.
On that note, I must stress that Craig was misunderstood at the time, partly because anyone who has read the original Ian Fleming novels will see that the stories that have inspired sixty years of big-screen Bond are not as clear cut and written long before the gadgetry and spectacle took over.