No Time to Die

When Ian Fleming created the character of 007 James Bond, he probably never ever realized how famous and iconic this character would become. Ever since "Dr. No" (1962) which starred Sean Connery as 007, this franchise has been popular with every film that has been produced. As the franchise went through an overhaul back in 2005 with Daniel Craig as 007 in "Casino Royale", we now see the end of that particular franchise with again Craig as 007 in "No Time to Die". 

In this installment of the 007 franchise, Bond (Daniel Craig) has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) from the CIA turns up asking for help since he is the only one he can trust. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist, Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain, Safin (Rami Malek) armed with dangerous new technology which would kill millions of people. Bond decides to take Nomi (Lashana Lynch) who is another spy and Agent Tanner (Rory Kinnear) to assist him in going to question a past nemesis, Ernest Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) who is now in maximum security in order to extract info about this new villain, but it turns sour, so along with instruction of M (Ralph Fiennes) and assistance of Q (Ben Whishaw), they enter a world where they might be biting off more than they can chew. 

Others to round out the cast are Lea Sedoux as Dr. Madeleine Swann, Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Ana de Armas as Paloma, Billy Magnussen as Logan Ash and Dali Benssalah as Primo.

This was directed with such grit, intensity and delineation by Cary Joji Fukunaga ("Sin Nombre" '09, "Chinatown Film Project" '09, "Jane Eyre" '11, "Beasts of No Nation" '15) plus TV, shorts and a video short. This filmmaker certainly can't be pigeon-holed hence his eclectic resume, and this makes him willing to conquer any project that comes his way. This shows that villains can be creepily lethal in the most quiet of ways, and shows that heroes can emit a certain amount of vulnerability and still be in charge, which is talented directing. It was equally well crafted by writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on a story by Purvis, Wade and Fukunaga, which is based on characters created by Ian Fleming. Even there are many writers who crafted this, considering their amount of experience in the feature film biz, its no surprise that this story was concise, cohesive and tight. Usually if a film has any more than two writers, the script simply gets bogged down with too much going on, but since nothing is 100%, then having this number of writers actually worked. With as many locales that this film covered, it could've easily been convoluted in the story, however these writers handled it effortlessly. As with other 007 films, the stunts and photography were amazing and effective and truly enhanced the story. 

While this is Craig's last 007 film, there will be another one. Who? Not sure, but there are several actors that are being considered. The ending to this is a bit bittersweet and surprising. I'm not the biggest fan of this franchise, but with all objectivity, this was incredibly well executed. It's as well honed as "Casino Royale"--maybe better. If you want to see this up, close and personal, it's presented in an IMAX format as well.

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                          Rated: PG-13                                                163mins.