It is the last bond with Daniel Craig in the role of the now former agent 007 and it is also the longest of the twenty-five films in the series: it takes a full 163 minutes.
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Both of these circumstances had a significant effect on the film. Attention is focused on Bond, ie Daniel Craig always, but this time he got the opportunity for more layered acting and used it very well. Even at the cost of the film over other “craigs” highlighting the existential problems of a once-so-funny guy. And that it is not only long, but especially in the middle part also quite protracted.
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James Bond catches the beginning of the story (after a twenty-minute prologue that throws him into great grief) on a rest in the Caribbean, where he fishes, struggles to cope with the loss of all his loved ones, and would rather forget about Agent 007’s years.
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He is torn from his lethargy by a visit from his old friend Felix Leiter, who asks him for help in searching for the abducted scientist. Bond lets himself be persuaded for a while, but eventually goes back to an action in which he encounters a villain that only he has always been able to deal with.
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The plot follows Specter
There is nothing more to suggest from the plot, after all, Ian Fleming did not write a model for this film, so the viewer cannot know until he sees it. However, the plot is complicated and over-combined in the script, many viewers who do not remember previous films before the visit, especially Specter from 2015, who also does not have Fleming’s model and which No Time to Die Follows, will be difficult to find in links and connections.
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So, if not in full action, Bond solves her inner problems, French actress Léa Seydouxlike Madelaine, who returns to No Time to Die from Specter, spends a lot of time in tears, Christoph Waltz, like the villain Bolfeld from the same movie, has a negligibly small role. And some dialogues or monologues, especially those uttered by the main villain played by Rami Malek, are tearing at their ears because they are stupid and lack the slightest insight.
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American emotions
Cary Joji Fukunaga, who filmed Jana Eyrová, among others, and participated in the screenplays It’s Not Time to Die, is Irvinu Kershner(Never Say Never, 1983) the second American director to ever shoot Bond films. And it is the “American” emotions that are very evident here and move Bond somewhere where Fleming probably never wanted him.
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Bond has been an increasingly divided hero for quite some time, but this time the whole film has moved from adventure to a melodrama using such emotional crutches as a child, a plush toy and numerous hugs on the theme “that family comes first”. And the explosions of emotion are spinning Americans just as expressively and tearfully as Fukunaga did in No Time to Die – and Craig played it convincingly.
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Of course, there will be everything we are used to in the series, from the fancy Aston Martin car to the martini with vodka “shake, don’t mix” to the essential: I’m Bond. James Bond. The action is just right, nothing surprising could be expected in this direction, but it is shot very precisely and it is the action scenes that give the film at least a trace of Bond lightness and insight, although the filmmakers have almost given up humor.
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Léa Seydoux and Daniel Craig as film partners.
Photo: Forum Film
Visually, the film is very handsome, the Swedish cameraman won with scenes in Italy, Scotland, Norway and Jamaica, only the big action scene, taking place in Cuba, was created in the studio.
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So Daniel Craig says goodbye, and says goodbye with dignity and great feelings. Overall, however, “his” era ends mainly at a lengthy time and we will see if and where the series of Bond films will move on. There is nothing certain, speculation all the more. The most talked about is the British actor Tom Hardy, from the film It’s Not Time to Die, it could be read as a hint that the number 007 was inherited from Bond by an agent played by the black British actress Lashana Lynch. Well, we’ll see.
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| No time to die |
| VB/USA 2021, 163 min. |
| Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga |
| Starring: Daniel Craig, Léa SeydouxRami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes and others. |
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