In recent films, the man with "a license to kill" has been given more of a heart, No Time To Die builds on this but entangles it in between a spectacle of action set pieces in Daniel Craig's final showing as 007.
Written by Elliot Lines
No Time To Die begins with the childhood trauma that haunts Bond's love interest Madeleine Swan (Léa Seydoux), setting up the films villain, a masked covered nut-job out to seek revenge for his families murder. This sets the president for the rest of the story to come, setting up the betrayal that Bond is expecting after opening up his heart.
Madeleine has her secrets but she is not the only character hiding something. There is an air of secrecy throughout this film, with the likes of M (Ralph Fiennes) also having his own secrets, which come back to bite him. This secrecy aids throughout the storyline, not only causing the issues that Bond must overcome, but in the reaction to all this by Bond himself. His character is tested, but he's certainly still the same 007 when it comes to the action.
There are a variety of big action spectacles. These range from car chases to gun fights, from villainous parties to being isolated in the woods, they all have their moments and they are just as we would want to see Craig in this final bow out. Throughout the film Bond meets a variety of new characters, as well as old friends to help him along the way. Ana De Armas seemingly was set up as the next "bond girl", but makes a small appearance but with a big bang. Jeffery Wright returns as CIA agent Felix Leiter, however briefly. And Lashana Lynch shows up as the "stand in" for 007. The cast was as good as ever, aside from the squirm Logan Ash, most of these characters were likeable to a certain extent.
As for Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), our main villain, although he seemed kind of ruthless in his ways, and his plan to us M's secret to kill millions is outlandish, his character was fairly dull and quite tedious to watch. Although we got a background for the character, there still lacked any depth that you may have expected from the final villain at the end of this journey.
One problem with this latest Bond franchise is the attempt the try and connect all the films together. In the past, there have been small connections between films, but this series has a more overlying connection throughout the franchise. Attempting to do this has hurt them on a story front at times, complicating the simple premise of a James Bond story.
No Time To Die was meant to release nearly 18 months ago now, was it worth the wait? This may have a love story entangled within, but the secret agent action is as good as the rest, and with an emotional farewell to Daniel Craig as 007, I'd say this was well worth waiting for.