Daniel Craig’s final outing of what will be his most famous role. Bond, James Bond, is over for now, and judging by the quality of this one, I hope we don’t get him back for a while. I’m not saying it’s a bad movie. There are aspects I love, like, and hate. Which means it’s overall meh. An overall predictable mess.

Let’s start with Craig. Amazing. He is giving it his all, and it’s clear that he is not tired of this role. Modern politics of any kind do not betray the character of James Bond, thank god. It’s 100% 007. I will say that his one-liners aren’t that good, and the humor of this movie comes off pretty flat. The attitude is there, but the humor is lazy.

No Time To Die is perfectly cast, but several characters don’t get used well. Felix makes a return, as does Blofeld, but they are both wasted. Moneypenny is strictly a secretary this time despite her usefulness in the past. The exquisitely dressed Ana De Armas named Paloma in the film is also wasted. Paloma is one of the best aspects of this movie, and it’s a shame it doesn’t know this since she’s only in it for five minutes. Give me a spinoff with her. I would say there is a good time for M, Q, and Lea Seydoux’s returning character Madeleine from Spectre. Bond is retired, so Lashana Lynch plays a new 007, but she offers nothing. She’s generic 007. Then we have Rami Malek as the villain named Safin.

He has the good old villain plot of spreading a lethal killing virus. They made the movie before covid, and right now, it does feel very timely. It’s not a complaint but an observation. Rami Malek is a good actor, but this is one of the worst Bond villains because he isn’t in it that much. He’s also not intimidating or memorable in any way. I would say he’s on the same level as the villain from Quantum of Solace. There is also a very annoying scientist villain in the movie that I think was supposed to be like Alan Cumming’s much better character from Goldeneye. He wasn’t funny no matter how much the writers wanted him to be. I hated him. I couldn’t wait for him to die.

What was shocking to me was how unsatisfying the movie was. Cary Fukunaga directs the film perfectly. The action is excellent, and it looks real, unlike recent action movies like Fast 9. The problem is essentially the lousy script and how predictable it all is. It’s two hours and forty-five minutes, and yet the story feels very rushed. It starts very strong, but I know exactly when I started turning on the movie and won’t spoil it here. The relationship between Bond and Madeleine wasn’t engaging to me. She’s no Vesper. I wonder what Danny Boyle’s version was going to be before he quit the production. He might’ve had a much better script.