No Time to Die is the latest film in the James Bond franchise. This one featuring Daniel Craig. He’s been looking particularly smiley in media interviews for this film..charming rather than surly…it must be because after 15 years of making Bond Films he can finally wave goodbye to this role.
Who’s your favourite Bond man? Sean Connery was mine..hands down. Sometimes difficult to understand but who cares, he was suave, debonair and divine! Dr No, the first Bond film was released in 1963. Different times. It was tongue in cheek. Funny. Improbable, Ridiculous and delightfully escapist entertainment. The formula fit like a comfy old sweater. You knew what to expect. Take one handsome, dashing alpha male with gym ripened muscles, a bevy of attractive gun-touting women, action scenes, a sinister enemy- Aston Martin loaded with killing features, The Martini- shaken not stirred, luxury yachts, stunning clothes, and chase scenes. Bond always got his woman and it was mostly a one night stand. The villain was killed, or lived to see another day.. a haunting presence in the life of this secret agent. Bond was the ultimate employee from hell…. ” Where’s Bond?” a familiar cry from his employer M. He was untameable- his own man- the talent you had to have but he was hell on wheels to manage!
That was then. This is now. In our woke 2020’s Bond is too emotionless, exploits women and wins at all costs. He’s humourless. Women in Bond movies are portrayed in minor roles ……..beautiful manikins and muses, but rarely action figures themselves. This will never do.
So a rewrite was ordered for the ” No Time to Die” script. Phoebe Waller- Bridge, creator of the very successful Fleabag, was bought in to rumble the script and make it less alpha male, more sensitive new age action hero. This Bond has a heart, falls in love, cries, has babies. It’s a disaster!
No Time to Die has all the car chases, a villain (Rumi Malek)who desperately needs to see a dermatologist, pretty women in divine clothes, a few action scenes with women wielding weapons but it’s a hotch-potch of disjointed images and fractured storylines. This new age Bond may be politically more correct but he’s boring. Looks great but it’s not enough. It’s not funny. There’s no satire of the genre. The Bond formula has been soaked in sanitizer and it emerges limp and tedious.
Sorry…. I really wanted to enjoy this film in my first outing to the cinema in nearly 2 years but perhaps for Bond..it is time to die!
Words by Nora Vitins.