No Time To Die (Bond 25)

[thecuriousorange]

My friend Cecil said he found a dodgy stream of this online, but only skimmed the bits he thought he would care about.

Spoiler alert

The very start and the very end.

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[lankyguy95]

The new Screen Rant Pitch Meeting. This guy always does these well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz9kLWsiQjc

[mothman]

His reaction to the big ending surprise is perfect.

[evilcommiedictator]

[Old Nehamkin]

Watched this again tonight. My feelings are largely unchanged but this time around it struck me how funny it is that they gave Tanner (Rory Kinnear) his own dedicated character poster for this:





GET READY FOR TANNER

[mothman]

I head-canon (ugh) it that the whole run of Count Arthur Strong is a Tanner spin-off.

[Blue Jam]

Finally saw this last night and really enjoyed it. Bit long but didn't drag. Ana de Armas was badass if underused. I even enjoyed Rami Malek. Can't be arsed to do an in-depth analysis, sorry.

I did laugh at Pingu going

Spoiler alert

"Hacking Blofeld's bionic eye..."

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aloud though.

[Blue Jam]

Am I right in thinking this is only the second Bond film with a naughty F-word? I believe Judi Dench's "I fucked up didn't I?" in Skyfall was the first, was Frodsham Bond's "For fuck's sake" only the second? It was jarring enough to stand out as unusual.

Also while watching the intro and mentally going "BANG! Blood dribbles down..." I noticed

Spoiler alert

no blood dribbled down

[close]

. Another first?

I was a little disappointed by Bond actually ordering a "vodka martini, shaken not stirred" and saying that verbatim when the first three Craig Bond films took the piss out of that so well.

[Noodle Lizard]

I enjoyed it overall, although that's at least partly due to the fact it's the first time I've been to the cinema for the best part of two years, and a new Bond is always an outing for me.

It's got all the same problems I've had with every other Craig Bond, but by this point I wasn't really expecting anything else. The opening sequence in Italy was gorgeous (could've done without the

Spoiler alert

generic home invasion flashback beforehand

[close]

), and there was one stunt on the bike that was impressive in a way I've not really felt since CGI replaced practical stuntwork for the most part. I agree with most of the criticisms in this thread about the plot, the MI6 characters, the villain (one of the worst) etc., and it probably is a bit overlong, but I had a fun time of it. I'm not quite sure what I make of the ending yet.

EDITED TO ADD: The opening credits sequence was beautiful, if a bit incomprehensible, and one of my favourites from the Craig era. I don't particularly care for the song, but as others have said it fits in fine.

One Bond trope I've really missed in the Craig era is a solid sub-villain. The one in this was uninteresting, unthreatening and seemingly inept. Struggling to remember the ones from TWINE thru SPECTRE, if they even had any. In the earlier films especially, the sub-villain was where they experimented the most with quirky, inventive characterisation and sometimes almost superhuman qualities, but for a while now they've just been marginally sturdier-than-usual henchmen who barely even need to be contended with. In the next iteration, I would very much like a new Oddjob/Jaws/Nick Nack please.

[Noodle Lizard]

So my Craig Bond ranking is probably as follows:

1. Casino Royale[nb]though it's far from perfect; I could've done without some of the first act and the Austin Powers "Vanessa, you're a FEMBOT!" ending[/nb]
2. Skyfall
3. No Time To Die
4. SPECTRE
5. Quantum of Solace

Honestly, the middle three are somewhat interchangeable. I don't think any of them are great, and none would make my top 10 Bond films. I enjoyed SPECTRE more than Skyfall in the cinema, but it doesn't hold up to any scrutiny. On the other hand, I find Skyfall largely ridiculous and, perhaps contrary to most, hated Javier Bardem's villain.

In fact, the only decent villain from the Craig era was Mads Mikkelsen, we should've seen more of him. Christoph Waltz should have been really good, but the script wasn't there to match his characterisation. His reappearance in this one was laughable, with that contraption rolling him out to greet them like a shit haunted house prop. I feel like he deserved better. Who was the villain in Quantum of Solace again?

[Mr Trumpet]

One Bond trope I've really missed in the Craig era is a solid sub-villain. The one in this was uninteresting, unthreatening and seemingly inept. Struggling to remember the ones from TWINE thru SPECTRE, if they even had any. In the earlier films especially, the sub-villain was where they experimented the most with quirky, inventive characterisation and sometimes almost superhuman qualities, but for a while now they've just been marginally sturdier-than-usual henchmen who barely even need to be contended with. In the next iteration, I would very much like a new Oddjob/Jaws/Nick Nack please.

The only one I remember is the chap with diamonds in his face from one of the wonkier Brosnan films.

[GMTV]

The end felt like one battle too many in the film. When films have the characters get tooled up for a big fight that in reality would make no sense. How would they know what was about to happen beyond it being a film and this is the big fight bit.

Although I have to say I did jump out for a pish just before it as I couldn't hold on any longer, and the bevvy was starting to kick in by this point, so not really a fair assessment.

Really enjoyed it but slightly too long.

[Thomas]

I'm a stickler - I can't miss a single scene. As such, I made sure to consume and piss out my day's water intake long before getting to the cinema. If I have a drink when I'm there, I try to wait until the second half of the film before commencing a tentative sipping.

[Replies From View]

I'm a stickler - I can't miss a single scene. As such, I made sure to consume and piss out my day's water intake long before getting to the cinema. If I have a drink when I'm there, I try to wait until the second half of the film before commencing a tentative sipping.

That's only 26% being a "stickler".  The rest is entirely due to your onset bladder shrinkage.

[dead-ced-dead]

I enjoyed this for the most part, but it sometimes felt like two Bond films stapled together, hastily re-written to be coherent.

Disregarding the opening in Italy and the flashback, the first hour/hour and quarter was far more entertaining to me than the second, and I much preferred the supporting characters in the first act/act and a half.

Felix Lighter, Ana De Armas, the creepy turn coat "Mormon" played by the very fun Billy Magnussen were all good fun. Ana did more in her five minutes than Madeline did in all of her boring screen time.

Madeline and her daughter were boring and the entire MI6 lot were a bit dull, with the exception of the new 007, who ran across both of the two movies. The less said about the generic villains in act two the better. Especially the eyeball guy, who was just a Madlibs B-villain.

But overall, I liked it.

[Josef K]

I really don't get why Casino Royale is so fondly remembered.

Rewatched it last year for the first time since release and it's ace right up until the Vespa romance. The dialogue just made me and my partner physically cringe.

E.g:
Vesper: You're not going to let me in there, are you? You've got your armor back on, that's that.
Bond: I have no armor left. You stripped it from me. Whatever is left of me... Whatever is left of me, whatever I am... I'm yours.

Usually the romantic sub plots in Bond are just throwaway one night stands so it really doesn't matter, but considering how key their relationship is to the whole arc of the Craig movies, it's just so dreadful.

Anyway, I enjoyed this one a lot, some lovely direction, and the first Bond film where I didn't feel like it'd be improved by making him asexual.

[Blumf]

Bond: "I don't like sand. It's course and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."

[Chollis]

I really don't get why Casino Royale is so fondly remembered.

because poker is cool and Mads Mikkelsen is a cool villain

[Magnum Valentino]

Car flip

[mothman]

Although doubtless there are issues around the execution of the last 20-30 mins, I do wonder if it's meant to instil a sense of unease, of it not being right. This is Bond finally being happy. And apparently being so with someone who up until then hadn't liked him all that much. You can endlessly try to unpack how much Vesper really has fallen for him (or at least cares for him), but I think the idea of a soppy lovestruck Bond is meant to be jarring.

Granted Bond has been seen in love proper before, but that was in OHMSS where a) it was Lazenby, not the best actor in the world; b) with Diana Rigg, and accounts vary how well they got on during filming; and c) them getting married happens in the last five minutes. If it had just been victory-shag-then-end-credits as usual, would Tracy have "felt" any different than any other Bond girl?

[Kelvin]

Just got back from this wretched piece of catshit. Thought it was a complete joke; unbelievably boring for a Bond film, with the most embarrassing dialogue being delivered in the most half arsed way. A racist, ugly, stupid farce, where every scene was a tonal bombsite. Magnetic lift shafts, levitating cybernetic eyes, Blofeld riding on a little prison train. At one point a computer says something like "Blofeld's cybernetic eye: unlocked" and Q punches the air. No motive for the villain's wider plan, no meaningful dynamic between him and Madeline, no reason for Bond to do what he does at the end, no chemistry between the cast. Bond didn't even sound like Bond, which was unfortunate because the quipping twat never shuts the fuck up. Jesus Christ, I hated it. Even Spectre had some good action scenes, but this could only manage one, before the opening credits. Awful.   

[Noodle Lizard]

because poker is cool and Mads Mikkelsen is a cool villain

Which only makes up the second act, really (or the third, if you look at it as a five-act film, which it sort of is). Mikkelsen's probably the best actor the franchise has pulled for quite some time (and he's a far better actor than Daniel Craig), but he wasn't given very much to do here.

The rest of it really isn't all that good. I remember being shocked when I first saw it because I was so underwhelmed by this "daring reinvention of the franchise" - it felt like a Bourne film, albeit with plenty of unearned pathos that would continue throughout Daniel Craig's run of Bonds.

[Old Nehamkin]

Magnetic lift shafts, levitating cybernetic eyes, Blofeld riding on a little prison train. At one point a computer says something like "Blofeld's cybernetic eye: unlocked" and Q punches the air.

I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure but every one of those bits I was like "yes!"

[dissolute ocelot]

I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure but every one of those bits I was like "yes!"

It does sound very Austin Powers, but some cliches are cliches because they kick ass.

[Kelvin]

The problem wasnt that those bits were silly or clichéd, but that the silliness was so mismatched with the tone of the film at other points, frequently in the same scene. Take the bit where Blofeld turns up in his cage, slowly chugging towards them in an attempt to build tension. And yet it's such a fundamentally silly image, so camp, that it not only fails to produce tension, but actively undercuts the scene of Madeline freaking out as she can't go through with the murder. It renders the whole scene farcical, rather than either fun or dramatic.

[Dr Rock]

I agree the Hannibal Lectering of Blofeld was not good.

[Noodle Lizard]

The problem wasnt that those bits were silly or clichéd, but that the silliness was so mismatched with the tone of the film at other points, frequently in the same scene. Take the bit where Blofeld turns up in his cage, slowly chugging towards them in an attempt to build tension. And yet it's such a fundamentally silly image, so camp, that it not only fails to produce tension, but actively undercuts the scene of Madeline freaking out as she can't go through with the murder. It renders the whole scene farcical, rather than either fun or dramatic.

Yeah, I think I mentioned this too. I laughed out loud in the cinema at that, astonished no one looked at that bit in the script or storyboard and went "hang on won't that look really, really stupid?"

[Kelvin]

Were the following things ever explained, perhaps in a line I missed:

Who were the people on the disk that Q said he couldn't identify yet? Were they just random targets that the people sending ships wanted killed? Shouldn't there be a bigger thematic motive for the villain beyond selling weapons? I had assumed that, after Spectre, he was going to target all the world's criminals and corrupt politicians, so he actually served as a contrast to Bond. But he didn't seem to have any motive beyond killing Spectre then selling the weapon. It seemed too mundane and impersonal for a finale like this.

Why was Madeline not alarmed to find the villain sat in her office like that? If she initially thought he was a patient, why did she not think his talk of murder was alarming? Surely any dangerous criminals she meets (like Blofeld) are under heavy guard / security. She clearly didn't recognise him as she freaked out when the mask was revealed. And yet he claimed to be obsessed with her? Only to then leave her and take the daughter. Only to let the daughter go five minutes later as well. Awful, awful script. Pathetic. 

How was Blofeld speaking at his party? I assume his gibberish was actually code they chopped up, but again, unless I missed a line, this was never explained, despite them explicitly asking the question in the script. In fact how was Blofeld seeing through the eye? None of this was ever explained to my knowledge.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Henchman Primo and Blofeld were "networked" through their bionic eyes, that also carried sound.

After all the heads of SPECTRE were killed, Primo then joined Safin's operations.

[Kelvin]

Henchman Primo and Blofeld were "networked" through their bionic eyes, that also carried sound.

But Blofeld didn't have a bionic eye, did he? His eye was missing when Bond went to see him, presumably because Primo had it. So was his other eye bionic? He has two bionic eyes?

Imagine writing that about a film set in the same universe as Casino Royale. Even if it was explained, we're talking about a Bond film where a guy walks around with a cybernetic eyeball on a silver platter. And yet also expects us to take it seriously.