Aaaaand I'm back from Bond. Still haven't had the time to process it fully, so anything I write should be taken with a grain of salt. But I'm gonna say it regardless.
I'm going to try to keep it spoiler-free, but if you don't want to know absolutely anything, don't read this. So here we go...
No Time To Die (2021)
Alright, firstly, the cinema experience. The movie's made for it, and it looks phenomenal on screen. I mean we're in the 21st century now, everything looks almost realistic (if not blown up even more), so that's good I guess.
That's also its bad side. It's not all fights and explosions, but if it's not that then it's tense dialogue. There's no more 'relaxed' scenes, where Bond takes a minute to arrive somewhere, get settled or enjoy the setting. Just lots of tense scenes, one after another. Like trance nowadays. Very little breathing room. They try to fix that with the occasional humorous remark, but it's sitcom-like for the most part. A silly character, or some small banter.
Then there's Bond as a character. Take only his name out of this movie and you're left with what's basically a typical blockbuster - that's another thing that ties together with the character. There's no charm, very little wit, very little extensive knowledge about anything, very little trained effortlessness, savoir-faire... Bond is just an average protagonist. He's trying to save the world of the bigger threat than it was in the previous movie, by trying to defeat the badder villain than he had to face in the last movie. Everything feels bigger and more intense, and they seem like they had to cram in so much action/tense stuff that there's really no place for the character to shine, no place for any emotional development. The movies need action scenes, and they come with a big expense. That said, all the other characters seem to have no impact whatsoever. Bunch of randos as far as I'm concerned. M doesn't have that natural authority and presence anymore - it's always some tension, constant questioning and hard decisions involved. Moneypenny is just a secretary now, there's no more casual flirting involved at all. Q is a programming wiz kid hipster. And so on...
The story is alright, moves ok but it is very overblown.
And for a movie about a spy, there's very little espionage!!!!
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not one of those dudes who thinks Sean Connery is an ideal of Bond and that Bond movies were shit since 1968. Bond movies were generally crap, but the character was fun to watch, if nothing else. Dame Judi Dench was awesome as M. Craig absolutely shone in Casino Royale (which, in my eyes, is the best Bond movie, along with Dr. No). Timothy Dalton's angry Bond sort of worked for me. Le Chiffre was fantastic as an antagonist, absolutely realistic.
And then there's the little things, like fire from hand grenades (I mean come on...), a bit too many bullets flying around and not hitting the good guys. And for a movie with so many bullets, we see no wounds. When someone gets shot, they are almost always far or out of focus. Ratings are a bitch I know, but this is just too much.
What's worse...the production team, writers, directors, owners etc. all know this, and would probably agree.
And now...for the end. Warning: Contains spoilers.
The final act is just as the rest of the movie: action-packed and tense all the way. But the ending is almost as unexpected as it is good. Like, really good. But, it could've been explored a bit more, emotionally.
And as we see his career come to an end here, he's almost a family man instead of what can basically be described as a high-functioning alcoholic (and so on).
I would've also liked a sudden death as well, or something vague.
I really wonder what's gonna happen next with the franchise. Like, is it over? Where does the next Bond come in, after we've seen the beginning and the end of Bond's 007 career (especially under Craig)?
So to conclude, I did enjoy seeing this. It's definitely not the worst movie, and it's fun to watch if you can shut down your analytical brain for almost 3 hours, as I did. And even now I still kind of liked it. But it's definitely not one of the greats.