Unfair. People tend to forget that SPECTRE was about Madeleine meeting Bond, being very skeptical of him and finally opening up to him. She could not have had as much development as in NTTD.
Oh, what does any villain gain from doing what he does?
The sheer pleasure of having power over others.
And that’s exactly what Safin absolutely enjoys. He even spells that out when he tells Mathilde about Bond pleading for her life: See, this is absolute power…
Fair enough, I definitely need another viewing. I think I may have missed some things.
No Time To Die is an oddly heavy film at times.
There’s very little hand holding.
It is and it is just begging for multiple viewings (fine with me). I also don’t mean to sound too critical. I really, really enjoyed my time watching the film and for the most part, I am very high on it. It just needs time to soak in. More so than almost any other Bond film.
My advice: Try not to let what you know now get in the way of enjoying the film. Be as open to it as you would to any new Bond film after an eternity of waiting, stop-and-go releases and whatnot. NO TIME TO DIE absolutely deserves to be savoured. When you arrive at the end you might even feel it deserves to be celebrated.
Safin is really the cipher here, a placeholder standing in for any villain Bond has fought. While Bond morphs into a human being his adversary turns into a hollow figure, dangerous to his world but ultimately without real purpose.
Good advice. Put the ending at the back of your mind and start the journey from Matera. It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.
I really like this detail because it’s mysterious. We don’t know who these buyers are. As Felix says, “it’s harder to tell the good from the bad, the villains from the heroes these days.” They could be anybody.
Hello. I am not as new here as I look. The old-timers will remember me. Maybe.
Just when I thought 2021 could not get more depressing… 
I watched NTTD tonight and it feels good to read all your reviews here, it helps me process everything. I come too late to add much, @Dustin I think you said everything I felt better than I would.
I always had reservations, to say the least, about Bond having a child, for the fundamental reason that there is only room for one child in the franchise… But oddly, since Bondis gone, that works perfectly. His end was also handled very well, or so I thought.
One little note though: on principle, is it really a good idea to blow up and therefore release into the ocean a deadly amd highly contagious product? But then, I am quite the Sea Shepherd type… 
That was the best bloody Bond film I’ve ever seen in my life. Just brilliant!
All the risks they took, or lines supposedly crossed, were laid out in the Fleming novels. This is as close to the YOLT novel adaptation we’re ever gonna get. The shoutouts to Fleming and OHMSS film were spot on.
It was the most emotional, but also had the best character development seen in a Bond film I think ever. The Matera opening was fantastic. Best start to a Bond film yet. I enjoyed the title sequence too, and once you realize the plot, it makes sense. Despite having been written and filmed before covid, they have a film that serves as its metaphor.
CR is probably better, and I always felt that SF is a tad overrated, but right now NTTD is the best Craig film for me. My favorites are FYEO, OHMSS, LTK and Goldfinger, but NTTD is better than each of those. It’s not perfect, no. But I can’t think of a better swan song.
Still, I wish the ending mirrored Fleming’s YOLT novelization and was a little less definitive, more open ended. This film sent chills down my spine, shocked me at times, and for the first time in a Bond film, I cried, I’m not ashamed to admit.
It gave me everything I wanted and more. It could have been better, yes, but this was the best Bond I’ve seen. Thank you, DC.
I hated it. the ending. Seriously? I am pissed and feel betrayed. The movie is damn good for 2/3rds much like Spectre which I thought fell apart at the villain’s lair…
I would like to say, though, how great was Lynch’s performance. All the other twists are so overwhelming that I forgot to mention it, but she really deserves praises. Her part was extremely delicate (sensitive) and she handled ot perfectly.
I hope she will get the appreciation she deserves from the fans.
Really enjoyed Lashana Lynch throughout the film, but her role ultimately felt a bit superfluous and awkward - her decision to hand the 007 title back to Bond felt odd and unnecessary - almost like the producers protecting the film from the ire of angry Redditors.
I wouldn’t be adverse to a spinoff film about her, she’s clearly a charismatic screen presence and I’d love to live in the world of Bond but with a new character who doesn’t have the baggage and the sacred cows of the man himself, but given how often they’ve tried to launch a female spinoff series (and how toxic the reaction seems to be every time these franchises try to do that), I’d say her role may end up being limited to this film.
Unfortunately, I am afraid Lynch is stuck in limbo:
having a spin off starring her character would be in poor taste after the Craig era ended the way it did, and then it would overlap with the next era of Bond, which will probably be a reboot of sorts;
seeing her character reappear in the universe of the next (rebooted) Bond would be totally confusing.
As much as I regret it, I can’t see how she / her character could fit in the franchise again.
I hated FYEO and OHMSS when I first saw them, but now they’re among my favorites.
Look at it this way, for the first time ever EON knew they were making a final James Bond movie, just as Casino Royale was his first as if the others did not exist. DAF and NSNA (though not EON) knew they were the actors last as well, but this was a definite swan song.
As to the other complaints about the ending, eventually that virus would find its way to its target. We’re all separated by just 6 degrees after all. This was made evident in the Madeleine to Bond to Blofeld transfer. Death finds a way.
Even if the nanobots could be neutralized with an EMP watch, there’s just no time to get off the island.
This was earned.
Plus, it’s not like we’re not getting another Bond film in 3-4 years. They don’t all exist in the same universe, and the next one won’t either.
I’d honestly love a spin-off with Lynch and Ana de Armas. I think they’d make a fantastic pair. Lynch was great and, despite only getting about 10 minutes of screen time, Paloma might be my favorite character of the entire Craig run.
I think every time a new Bond film releases (really any movie), it needs time to settle. The reaction of the first viewing doesn’t always reflect its lasting presence. I remember being utterly depressed when I left the theater after seeing Die Another Day. I thought Bond was dying. In the years since, I still don’t rank Die Another Day very high, but I don’t think it’s the worst Bond film. And if I don’t take it too seriously, I can actually have fun watching it.
No, really? Time to resurrect and old classic… 
Thread continued here:
This may seem like blasphemy, but I actually like Die Another Day
Classic haha
A minor point of curiosity here. On Q’s tracking screens towards the end, the two agents are listed as BOND, J and NOMI, M.
So are we to assume that Nomi is actually her surname?