Yes No Maybe So: No Time to Die
Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 4:00PM by Deborah Lipp
The twenty-fifth official James Bond movie, No Time to Die, was originally scheduled for release in April, and was the first major movie to suffer delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is now scheduled for release on November 21st and a new trailer recently dropped.
How badly do we want to see it? Let’s break it down…
YES
- It’s a Bond movie! I know not all of you feel this way, so I won’t dwell on it, but I mean, it’s a Bond movie!
- The stunts look heart-stopping, the sets look gorgeous, and those costumes! What is that fab thing Lashana Lynch is wearing in the nightclub?
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s contribution to the script is bound to be sparkling.
- The core “MI6” cast of Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Rory Kinnear is as impressive a lineup as Bond has had since the 1960s. Add in the return of Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter, and it’s just about perfect.
- The women this time out are pretty exciting: Ana de Armas was wonderful in Knives Out!, Léa Seydoux takes my breath away, and Lashana Lynch was stellar (see what I did there?) in Captain Marvel.
- The 1964 Aston-Martin DB5 using its gadgets gives me all the feels.
- This looks to be an actual “save the world” plot. The Bond movies haven’t had one of those since Moonraker in 1979.
- It’s Daniel Craig’s last (no really) Bond movie. Craig’s tenure has reshaped this franchise, and his work has elevated the character in unexpected ways. People who’ve stuck a microphone in his face as he’s still recovering from injuries incurred filming his most recent movie will find he’s always swearing off doing another, but now it’s definitely his last. His contract is up, and more importantly, he’s 52 years old. With three-to-five years between Bond films lately, he really has aged out. All the more reason to see his swan song in the role.
NO
- The film follows in Spectre’s footsteps in too many ways. For one thing, No Time to Die has the longest run-time of any Bond movie, a record previously held by Spectre, and one of the main complaints about the earlier movie is how bloated it was.
- Other Spectre sins being repeated are emphasizing continuity in the franchise (returning characters and plot points) and casting Christoph Waltz as Blofeld. Waltz is so wrong as Blofeld, and his prominent presence in the trailer suggests that no one on the production team regrets his casting.
MAYBE SO
- It’s possible that Rami Malek is amazing? I was less impressed by him as Freddie Mercury than the rest of the world was, so I’m withholding judgement.
- Ana de Armas is twenty years younger than Daniel Craig; Lashana Lynch nineteen years younger. This makes me a little uncomfortable.
- Ana de Armas’s action scenes in the trailer look unconvincing to my eyes.
CONCLUSION?
Who am I kidding? I race past “Bond enthusiast” and land comfortably on “obsessed.” I’d see No Time to Die if it was A View to a Kill. I’ll be there opening night, in a hazmat suit if needed. But this one looks promising. I suspect it could break down in the latter half, as Spectre did, but surely portions of it will be outstanding.
What say you?
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION TIME:
The fully-revised, up-to-the-minute, new edition of my book The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book will be out in October, in advance of No Time to Die and in plenty of time for holiday gift-giving. I’ll announce it widely when advance sales are available. Meanwhile, follow me on Twitter and Instagram for the latest.
Reader Comments (32)
I'm a yes to seeing it but there is no way I'm returning to a packed theatre, even with a mask, in the current circumstances to do that.
But then I'm merely a casual Bond fan not an ardent one. I can wait.
Uh... yeah. It's James Bond. I'll see it but when it's safe to go back to the movie theaters because this is the movie I want to take my mother to as a tribute to my dad.
Another James Bond movie? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You wrote a whole book on James Bond and it makes you uncomfortable that there's a 20 year age gap between Bond and the women he's romantically involved with? I feel like you have to go back to the Sean Connery days to see the gap narrow to a mere ten. (Roger Moore was 24 years older than Jane Seymour in LIVE AND LET DIE and it's been like that pretty much non stop ever since.) I understand being annoyed at this always being the case (I'm annoyed, too) but "uncomfortable"? The two actresses in question are in their twenties. The characters they play have agency and are old enough to consent to relationships with older partners. Being uncomfortable with it is a little like being uncomfortable that Bond shoots so many people. That said, nice article.
This movie was SUPPOSED to kick off the Summer Movie Season!!!!!!!!. AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!
Yes, I'm totally there because of your bullet point #1, It's James Bond!
However, I missed "Spectre" and am obviously missing some plot points with Blofeld and the Blonde Lady.
I figure that audiences will still be tepid over tromping into theaters to see any movie by the end of November. So, after a sadly uninspiring opening couple of weeks this movie will head to streaming if not done simultaneously. I've seen every James Bond movie, beginning with Dr. No, in a theater so the release of No Time to Die will mark a departure for me after nearly fifty-eight years.
I wasn't even a Bond fan until Daniel Craig started playing the character. I'm a total YES. And no I won't be rushing out to watch the earlier (pre-Craig) films any time soon. Sorry Sean Connery.
I’m curious only to see what Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s contributions are but I’m afraid it’ll probably just be a witty line or two.
Dan, I'm not new to the age issue. In fact, the linked article appears as a chapter in the new edition of my book. That doesn't mean I'm not uncomfortable with aspects of it.
forever1267, you might want to catch Spectre before No Time to Die opens -- the opening sequence is bravura filmmaking that will knock your eyes out, even if it ultimately doesn't live up to its promise. It's solid-gold Mendes.
Not without Judi Dench. Sorry
"Ana de Armas is twenty years younger than Daniel Craig; Lashana Lynch nineteen years younger. This makes me a little uncomfortable." Why exactly? :) Where's the problem?
Waltz is good as Blofeld. Maybe not as good as Donald Pleasence but let's be honest: Telly Savalas or Max von Sydow weren't great either.
Yes: I’ve seen all the Bond films except 2. So I need to add this, although I can wait to see it, rather than seeing it in a theatre. I ache for new movies.
Maybe So: I’ve never particularly liked Daniel Craig as Bond. But most of the supporting cast are pretty great.
No: I’m irritated every time I see Ralph Fiennes as M. It’s such an old boys club/ private school unpleasant throwback. Don’t they understand how Judi Dench’s M reinvigorated the series?
Cavendish: I mean, I REALLY want Idris as the next M at this point. That'd be fun.
"Ana de Armas is twenty years younger than Daniel Craig; Lashana Lynch nineteen years younger. This makes me a little uncomfortable." This feels like virtue signalling esp. when the people involved are oooooold enough to have their own agency.
Vovagia -- that is a GREAT idea. People talking about Idris as Bond don't seem to realize that he's basically the same age as Craig and the role calls for a younger man.
Ian -- "feels like virtue signalling"? As in, I'm lying and making stuff up in my post in order to impress you? Bye, Felicia.
Let me explain for who is having difficult in this regard:
The trend of older actors with younger actress is extremely problematic, even If they are over the age of consent, because, as a trend, It dictates that woman are only valuable and sexy when they are Young.
So, Deborah is expressing that this trend in a franchise that she loves makes her unconfortable.
Also, Deborah put the age issue in the maybe so colum. Meaning that she thinks It can be done in a responsible way, i guess
Deborah, so three out of 13 posters call you out on the ageism behind the remark suggesting a woman in her 20s with a man in his 50s makes you uncomfortable, and you just double down. As Dan says, this is par for the course and while an annoyingly long lasting trend it's hardly one to be described with a synonym for being creeped out. I think the biggest gap, actually, was the 30 one in "For Your Eyes Only" and then the 28 gap in "View to a Kill". Such default casting is irritating, but, as for the onscreen representation, either you think women in their 20s can make decisions for themselves about who to be involved with or you don't. Of course there should be older women in these films--and trans women and disabled people as characters who are not vilains, etc--but the sight of younger women with older men or vice versa isn't inherently creepy, except to sexual moralists or ageists. If there's a real problem in these films it's that they never really get rid of the trace of First World Empire maintenance. The Fleming novels were yes, very sexist, but they're also racist texts about the British Empire/NATO alliance maintaining itself by having people like Bond shooting enemies of Empire first and asking questions later--often bad guys presented as the racial other: Dr. No, Kananga...--Rami Malek continues that tradition. The core of this is still there. In a Black Lives Matter moment, a celebration of agents with a license to kill is far more problematic than young pretty women taking a liking to Daniel Craig on screen.
So Craig is now so old he needs to retire? Roger Moore did four 007 movies after he was 52. His final Bond film came out when he was 58.
Craig is only four years older than Ana's current boyfriend, Ben Affleck. And she and Craig had a strange chemistry in "Knives Out." As for the film itself, it looks really good. It doesn't look like it is taking itself so seriously this time out. Bond is at his best when he is a little campy.
Geoff, please don't put words in my mouth. If I had meant "creeped out" rather than "a little uncomfortable," I'd have said so. The multiple references to "agency" in these women is a straw man, as at no time did I say or imply that the women didn't have a choice. It's a LOT to surmise from the six whole words I used, leading me to think some of you had a bone to pick long before you read the article.
To be very clear, this is not an issue of the person James Bond or of the person Paloma (the characters played by Craig & de Armas respectively). It is an issue of casting and production standards. It is a little uncomfortable to know that the acceptable age of Bond women (as detailed in my previously-linked article) exists in a very narrow range, whereas the acceptable age of James Bond is far wider.
I am very much aware of what the age gaps were in what movies -- I even have a spreadsheet.
Rob C. yes, he's too old according to no less an authority than Daniel Craig himself. He does more of his own stunts than any previous Bond, his on-set injuries have increased with each film, causing numerous delays in No Time to Die's production, and he reports that as he ages, recovery is slower. He states he's too old to continue this kind of filmmaking. I have no problem believing him.
Moore did very few of his own stunts -- by his last movie, none at all. It hurt production quality. A casual viewing of A View to a Kill reveals virtually no medium shots of Roger Moore -- it's all closeups and long shots of the stunt double. The fake-looking stunts because the star can't do them is not something I'm eager to return to -- are you? Further, almost every fan criticism of AVTAK starts with a comment about Moore being too old.
And as you say, Moore did 4 Bond movies in a 6 year period. NTTD is the first Bond movie in over 5 years. Craig's 5 movies have taken 14 years to release. It's not realistic to imagine he'll be up to a 6th.
The age issue is a maybe so, guys, relax! No one is cancelling James Bond because of this. And the trend of older actors paired with younger women is problematic. Why defend it with such conviction?
I don't comment often, but I must say that I agree with Deborah regarding the age issue. The comment's section ia becaming such a boy's club nowadays.
Trailer looks good and has all the classic OO7 elements but I think what the world craves now is a throwback to the light Roger Moore Bonds' this might be too dark to risk going to a theater for and it does look like it would look amazing in IMAX
"No Time to Die" song is better than every Best Oryginal Song nominee in the last 2 years sans "Shallow" so at least the film will/should be represented at the Oscars there.
A pandemic is a perfect opportunity to just pretend this movie doesn't exist and carry on living without the need to talk about it ever.
Young starlets with older leading men shocking just shocking! This is James Bond folks not reality
I don't know about the other commenters, but I will admit that I kind of have bit of a bone to pick on this issue, though Deborah's great article really doesn't deserve the sustained flack she's been getting. Still, I've seen no fewer than three different mini-controversies online over just the last two weeks about age differences in on screen romances as an inherently bad or suspect thing. One, discussed right here in The Film Experience, involved the new Kate Wislet film (she's 45) in which her character is in a relationship with a younger woman played by Saoirse Ronan (who's 26), hardly a DEATH IN VENICE level gap, but someone was upset about it. One that caught fire on Twitter just this week involved a film relationship between a 35 year old man and a 28 year old woman that was supposedly "inappropriate" for this reason to some commenters (really?) The other was somewhere in between these two. It just seems to be some sort of "woke" new trend, and I'm certainly going to be pushing back against it, as I suggested on the AMMONITE thread. Of course they should be casting older women in Bond films, but that doesn't mean we should be uncomfortable with a 30 year old involved with a 52 year old on screen. Also, I'd love to see James Bond turn into a George Smiley on screen, right up to a last film with Daniel Craig playing him as a 64 year old pencil pusher trying to hold out till his pension kicks in. Just don't have him leaping up the steps of the Eiffel Tower like Moore did in A VIEW TO A KILL. THAT was kind of sad.
Snore. Craig doesn't even seem to get a half-nude scene, so why bother? :O)
Deborah, Ann, Mary -- I'm with y'all on this. Whileit in no way ruins the franchise for me but it is totally silly at this point not to pair Bond with women closer to his age. Especially since the way age looks onscreen has totally changed over the years. There are so many vital totally sexy actresses in the right age range, including Daniel Craig's own wife Rachel Weisz who would make an amazing Bond girl. Not that they necessarily want to work together again but she's a perfect example of how good that would look onscreen.
Rob -- this is alas, a good point. Why hide the body when you have to work that hard to make it beautiful?
Dan -- I'm with you on this. I am really scared for the left wing radicalism. I remember hearing a long time ago that if you go too far left or too far right you end up basically being the same and I thought 'what that doesn't make any sense' but I was wrong because lately the left wing is getting as sex negative as the right wing. It's kind of frightening actually that people are regularly freaking out at the sex lives of consenting adults... and trying to paint them as inappropriate. That kind of puritanism has destroyed so many people's lives.
If someone doesn't fell comfortable with the age of the lovers in a movie nobody is forcing you to watch it! I know someone who described "Call Me By Your Name"as child porn about rape?! I wonder what movie he saw or what is going on his brain. Going back to Bond yes Craig should retire after this one- which is some ways looks very formulaic- I hope it's better than the last one which was long and dull
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