Aww, now that is cute.
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I walked out of the cinema not long ago. Initial thoughts? This is one of the best James Bond movies ever made and it has hit me like a freight train. The entire film is beautifully shot and Hans Zimmer’s score fits like a tailored tuxedo. You can tell a lot of time and effort was put into making this the best film possible to farewell Daniel Craig. It’s a true conclusion to his tenure and also feels like a celebration of the franchise as a whole. Don’t be dissuaded by the ending: this is a movie that genuinely honours James Bond’s past and present, while setting the stage for the future.
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I’m glad it was worth the wait!
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The opening sequence is genius in the way it makes viewers question what film they are watching. It feels like a horror movie. The transition to the present day works seamlessly and includes one of the most dream like establishing shots you will ever experience, depicting the city of Matera. It’s a world of blissful paradise, wrapping the viewer in a blanket of love, happiness and infinite potential. I found even this to be a highly emotional moment, especially looking back and knowing how the story ends.
Bond standing in front of Vesper’s tomb and saying “I miss you” also made me well up. I too, like Bond, thought I was well and truly over that plot point, but apparently not. This is the accumulated power of five films of stricter continuity and the connection that creates.
The chase with the DB5 met my expectations, and it was a thrill to see the gadgets used this time. The real drama is happening inside the car, and I once again felt a pang when the train set off, parting Bond and Madeleine. Bond is a cold-hearted bastard and a wounded romantic all at once. I think that is the balance and lasting legacy Daniel Craig brought to the role.
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Am I the only one who thinks the Craig films way overplayed the Vesper card?
My goodness they had like a couple week fling. “The bitch is dead” was a badass Bond moment that has now basically been undone by the fact that he didn’t coldly move on like we thought he was going to…
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Indeed, “I miss you” is surprisingly impactful. I’d argue it hits harder than his “I love you” speech.
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I’m in two minds there.
On the one hand, the case of Vesper ought to be solved by the end of QUANTUM OF SOLACE. Seeing her name pop up in SPECTRE felt like stretching it.
On the other hand, when Bond regained consciousness in Goldfinger, feeling sure he’s on his way to afterlife, he worries how to explain Tilly to Vesper. A truly odd concern for someone who called Vesper a bitch. And in On Her Majesty’s we learn Bond had been going for a short vacation every September for years to visit Vesper’s grave, an even odder tradition bordering on ghoulish fixation. It’s fair to say Bond is a lot softer than he considers himself to be.
In that light, making Bond visit Vesper’s grave in NO TIME TO DIE seems like a clever use of that detail from the literary canon. Although I’m not sure I’d approve if I wasn’t aware of that particular background. Perhaps for an unsuspecting viewer that might feel totally milking it.
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And yet it totally sets up why Bond doesn’t trust the completely innocent Madeleine when the attempt on his life is made. He’s also wondering the life he could have had, a point Blofeld stabs him with later in the film.
Vesper is his first love. Who among us doesn’t have a soft spot for that?
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This is how I see it. Book or film, Bond doesn’t see Vesper as a bitch. He calls her that because he was angry and hurt. But he never stops loving her.
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Bond inside Safin’s lair is his final form as an agent. He’s telling M and Q what to do, refusing to stand down from his demand of a missile strike, while mowing down scores of mercenaries. A big improvement from the escape from Blofeld’s lair in SPECTRE.
Craig brought real determination and urgency to the sequence. I felt like he really was in the process of saving the world, especially when you consider how relevant the virus plot line is.
Managing to work out the complicated blast door configuration without Q’s help is classic Bond. It’s endearing and elicits a smile. The “it really blew his mind” quip about the watch is similar.
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Finally seen it, here in Australia.
Lots of threads to catch up with from all my CBN friends.
I’m still digesting it. It has some great moments, and it’s well made. Really not sure about the ending. Leiter and Blofeld also dead. James Bond Will Return at the end of the credits got a cheer.
Blofeld sneering at Bond again about messing up his life was boring. The Cuba scenes were great.
Daniel was amazing.
Where to from here for the franchise?
So many thoughts and questions running through my mind!!
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I find that with movies too, having had 3 kids. Like ET never made me cry as a kid, but now it does!
The bridge sequence from ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ tends to get me.
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I traveled to the States to see my family for the first time in two and a half years. My return trip took me to the Ontario town where my husband and I lived before moving to one of the Atlantic provinces. “No Time To Die” was showing at the local Cineplex, so I took advantage of the opportunity to see it for a second time. I’m so happy that I did.
Most of the minor issues I had on first viewing were resolved with a second viewing. So I’ll start with the one gripe that stayed with me: Tanner. Why bring him back, except for nostalgia’s sake? His role was so minor as to be almost unnecessary. Which is too bad, given Rory Kinnear’s acting talent. Yes, he did get that last scene between Bond and Blofeld, but anyone could have done that. I wish Tanner could have been given more to do. But in a movie crammed with new and familiar characters, he was pretty much sidelined.
The first time I saw it, I was just trying to keep up with what was happening, so the emotional impact was blunted. This time, I knew the gist of the story and wasn’t confused by plot details, so I focused more on the relationships. They all resonated with me. But most important, of course, was the relationship between Bond and Madeleine. And, by extension, Mathilde. I was moved by Bond’s and Madeleine’s efforts to reconcile, especially considering all the baggage each was carrying. I felt that movement toward reconciliation worked well and was believable in context with the events taking place.
But it was Bond’s tenderness toward Mathilde that I found especially moving. Given all he has been through, it’s easy to assume that such tenderness was beyond him. It was as if he instinctively knew that she was his child … and that changed everything. Not only that, but he was in awe of Madeleine because she had created this beautiful child, who was part of him, as well. The depth and enormity of that reality was something I think he was convinced he would never experience, yet there he was. That determined his final decision to sacrifice everything for them. Yes, the world was saved, too. But above all was this love he had discovered in himself, something he never knew he’d be able to feel. Until he did.
Daniel Craig knocked this performance out of the park. Thanks to him, I became a Bond fan … and I remain one.
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Just got back from seeing it.
I loved it, I thought it was fantastic from the pre title sequence and it never lost me.
Sign Cary Fukunaga up for the next. I think NTTD pips Skyfall as the most beautifully shot and looking film in the series for me.
The pre title sequence and Aston chase was incredible, will certainly be near the top pre title sequences in the series for me.
I really did not enjoy the title song or sequence. I hate to say it but I would like to see someone else other than Kleinman have a go now.
I loved the Felix scenes and his death felt like a real gut punch. Conversely I thought SPECTRE looked terrible (maybe the point?) and Blofeld was again poor and dull. I feel Waltz maybe just wasn’t a great choice after all, as neither appearances as Blofeld did anything for me. Seems the character was wasted so didn’t really mind how they killed him off.
The scene in the forrest with the sound of the engines in the fog was incredible and genuinely ingenious. They managed to make the sequence feel like a Jurassic Park type horror - the sound of the predators (the cars) in the fog closing in…
I loved how slimey Logan was and how he was disposed of, nice FYEO call back to Locque’s demise (one of my favourite moments in the series).
I thought the nanoprobes were a bit of a stretch but did the job for the story I guess.
Safin was quite forgettable, but it really wasn’t a villains film was it.
I (mostly) loved the MI6 team. Honestly, how M was still in a job at the end, let alone not having the decency to resign was bewildering. I still love the casting of M but the character really stuffed up in this one. It’d be a damn shame if they have to recast the MI6 team as they’ve all been fantastic and I’d love to see more entries with them, but that seems unlikely. I also though Nomi was great and really ended up liking her and enjoying her relationship with Bond.
Now Craig - hands down his best performance of his tenure. He seemed so comfortable in the role and put everything into it. I noticed a switch from the moment he saw Madeline again, everything became more urgent and purposeful. Absolutely a masterful performance and peeled back more layers to Bond.
I went in knowing pretty much everything and it didn’t diminish my experience at all, in fact I think it may have been enhanced by knowing what it was all leading to. The death scene was incredibly impactfull and was built to so well. I was surprised at how explicit it was that, yes, he definitely died, but I was filled with a sense of pride at how our hero went out.
I’m not sure if it’s overtaken CR as my favourite Craig film, but it’s certainly in the top two of his run.
What a complex relationship I’ve had with NTTD… the announcement press conference in Jamaca was on the first day of my honeymoon (my wife wasn’t too impressed that she had to wait for me to watch it. And honesty, I probably shouldn’t have bothered!) and two and a half years have passed. In that time, with the delays, with the pandemic, with the extra Australian delay, a bit of a dark cloud grew around the film and unfortunately I thought I was destined to hold something of a negative bias against it due to the pandemic related connotations.
Well, I’m so pleased to say that from the first moment I loved it. The dark cloud cleared from the very start (I have to admit that on the big screen, the gunbarrel was better than I originally thought from what I had seen before) and revealed a fantastic entry in the series.
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I didn’t much care for the song the first time around, but now, guess what? I can’t get it out of my head. It took that second go-around for it to stick with me.
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I think the way Craig’s tenure has handled Vesper has pretty much been inline with the books, he falls in love, she dies, 11 books later we find out Bond has been visiting her grave in France every year as a sort of pilgrimage, I’m fairly sure he is on her way to her grave when he is overtaken by Tracy at the start of OHMSS, though it’s been a few years since I last read it. So please correct me if I’m wrong here.
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It might be that films in general have overplayed man-wounded-by-treacherous/duplicitous/deceitful-femme-fatale, and that the Craig films followed this template–a template that extends back beyond film noir to Theda Bara and other vamps of the silent screen (and is probably rooted in Eve and the apple)–which is long past its sell-by date.
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The Tracy card was played or hinted at in 1977, 1981, 1989, and 1999, up to 30 years after OHMSS. Vesper’s card is just half that at 15 years old.
It could be that Madeleine is more aware of it because she may have heard about Vesper through her father, not Bond. So she may want Bond to absolve Vesper so that there aren’t any negative sentiments toward her, given that her father is behind Vesper’s death.
In the books, I don’t think Blofeld knew of Vesper, which sets EON’s Blofeld apart. It’s also interesting that Madeleine is not seeking revenge for her mother’s or father’s deaths, not against Safin, or Blofeld. They both die, and she’s relieved, but she’s not an active participant (she tried to leave Blofeld’s cell before Bond touched her wrist.) As she said in Spectre, she can’t be part of that life anymore.