It’s funny to know that this movie was intended to come out before the pandemic, because by releasing it now it might provide some unintentional food for thought for the morons who believe that a certain virus was actually conceived in a lab. I genuinely wonder if those people will read that far into this film, I’d find it deeply amusing. The good news is that there are definetely a lot of things this does better than _Spectre_. The action is memorable and way more visceral (though it doesn’t quite surpass the _Mission Impossible Fallout_ bar) and the characters are generally more interesting. I loved the women in this in particular, they all have distinct personalities and they’re not flawless human beings or overpowered (e.g. Ana de Armas is bubbly and fun, but at the same time she’s inexperienced and chaotic), like some blockbusters tend to do. At the same time, we shouldn’t pretend that this film invented strong female characters for Bond, especially after we’ve had Eva Green and Judi Dench. Meanwhile, James Bond himself has a very satisfying arc in this film, which isn’t too dissimilar to [spoiler] Tony Stark’s arc in Avengers Endgame [/spoiler], with a bold pay off in the third act. I’m happy that this film gave us confirmation that Mads Mikkelsen [spoiler] didn’t end up castrating Bond [/spoiler] during **that** scene in _Casino Royale_. It’s paced very well, more like a traditional action film and less like a drama, which was the case for _Skyfall_ and _Spectre_. Don’t let the runtime intimidate you, it doesn’t feel longer than 2 hours. And finally, the whole thing just looks great, it’s produced excuisetely. The cinematography isn’t quite _Skyfall_ level, but Roger Deakins is an impossible bar to clear for any cinematographer. Unfortunately, this film really struggles with its tone, bouncing between some cartoony stuff and very dark, dramatic moments. It wants to honor the traditional Bond stuff, but at the same time it can’t let go of the roots of the Daniel Craig iteration, which makes it feel like an uneven artistic vision, because the foundation of Craig’s Bond rests on this idea that this isn’t the traditional Bond. It’s going for the same tone as _Skyfall_, meaning its pretty serious, while also incorporating some campy stuff with the plot and the villain (but never going into straight up silly territory, like _Spectre_). The problem is that you could still take the villain and the plot seriously in _Skyfall_ (Bardem is still scary despite the camp, the hacking plot feels grounded), and that isn’t the case here, the plot goes too much into sci-fi territory for that. Also, Rami Malek didn’t leave much of an impression on me, the accent is wonky and he feels like a stock villain (very much like Waltz in the last film). There’s not really an interesting motivation there, or an interesting evil plan. It’s a campy and theatrical plan, and it feels very familiar. Finally, this film can be fairly predictable at times (for example: [spoiler] Matilde being Bond’s daughter was extremely obvious, but they still try to somewhat play it as a twist. The same goes for Lea Seydoux being framed in prologue.[/spoiler]). So, it’s good, it pushes the creative boundaries of what a Bond movie is in some ways, which is the best stuff. But I kinda hope they bring in someone with a fresh, fully realized artistic vision to really shake things up again for the next reboot. 7/10 Ps for the Bond producers: please, please make a spin off with Ana de Armas’ character.

What a waste of Rami Malek and Christop Waltz…. Story made no sense… This is not a James Bond movie TBH should have had a different name I give it a 4 for the bar scene that was good… the rest better skip and go back to watch some of the classics…

Ana de Armas steals the show and I'm not sure that's a good thing for such a small part

Im kind of sad about the Craig-era ending, but it was a great ride with a good ending. I really like that the whole James Bond-franchise became more action-based and less about goofy henchmen and gadgets. He was the first Bond that could actually kick someones ass. I really doubt that about all the previous ones. Anyway, the action in No Time To Die was awesome, as expected. The fights, chases, etcetera were all good. The music is amazing (I still can't get enough of the classic Bond tunes). I didn't really care for the whole 'new 007'-bit. But the performances of Craig, Malek and all the others were great. Emotional at times, but mostly bad ass. All in al, they did a good job to tie the whole Craig-saga together and I enjoyed it very much. Worth the wait.