No Time to Die, the James Bond film on which so much has been pinned, received its world premiere in London on Tuesday night, heralding what arguably the entire film industry hopes will be a return to mass moviegoing after months of pandemic shutdown. And the first wave of reviews – embargoed until one minute past midnight on Wednesday morning – should set their minds at rest.
UK broadsheet critics largely agreed that the film – supposedly Daniel Craig’s final outing as Bond – had delivered in spades, with the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Times all giving the film five-star raves. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it an “epic barnstormer … delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy (Bond will call M ‘darling’ in moments of tetchiness), heartbreak, macabre horror, and outrageously silly old-fashioned action”. The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin said the film was an “extravagantly satisfying, bulgingly proportioned last chapter to the Craig era, which throws almost everything there is left to throw at 007 the series can come up with”, while in the Times, Kevin Maher proclaimed: “It’s better than good. It’s magnificent.” In contrast, however, the Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey offered a dissenting view, suggesting the film was “strangely anti-climatic … a rotating sideshow of old characters and plot points”.
Reaction elsewhere is a tad more measured. The influential US trade magazines are broadly positive, with Owen Gleiberman in Variety calling it “an unabashedly conventional Bond film that’s been made with high finesse and just the right touch of soul, as well as enough sleek surprise to keep you on edge’”, while the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney says that Cary Joji Fukunaga, the first American to direct a Bond film “handles the action with assurance and the more intimate interludes with sensitivity” but is hampered by a plot “so convoluted and protracted you might find yourself zoning out through much of the villainy”. Stephanie Zacharek in Time magazine agrees it is “overstuffed with plot”, but adds: “No Time to Die, its flaws notwithstanding, is perfectly tailored to the actor who is, to me, the best Bond of all. With his fifth movie as 007, Craig is so extraordinary he leaves only scorched earth behind.”
In fact, Craig receives plenty of plaudits for his work, even for critics who are not necessarily sold on the film itself. In the Express, Stefan Kyriazis calls him “an absolute beast as Bond, dominating every moment on screen”, while for Total Film Matt Maytum suggests: “No Time To Die plays to his strengths, giving his tough but tender Bond a memorable and fittingly stirring finale.”
Most obviously though, the film has been greeted with relief, after a difficult production history (including original director Danny Boyle dropping out and Craig sustaining a serious ankle injury) followed by repeated shifts in its release date due to Covid. Time Out’s Phil de Semlyen said: “The nicest surprise of them all, though, is just how good it is … it finally arrives as a reminder of the big-screen power of a blockbuster franchise firing on all cylinders.”
