No Time to Die
First rewatch of this since it came out. My thoughts haven't changed - it's decent, but it's dragged down by some glaring faults. Perhaps the main one is that it really didn't need to be so long. It drags badly in places, especially once we get to the island at the end, and the finale winds up being easily the most disappointing part of the movie. It feels like they tried to make it epic simply by making it long, but for the most part the action in this sequence is actually disappointingly generic. Only the signature Fukunaga one-take charge up the stairwell makes any impression, but unfortunately that trick has really lost it's impact since 1917. The villains aren't up to much either; Malek is wasted as Safin and Waltz continues to be the absolute worst Blofeld (yes, even below Gray in Diamonds Are Forever). I remember at the end of Skyfall I was also absolutely stoked to see Ralph Fiennes take on the role of M, but in his two films he's been curiously disappointing. Likewise Lynch felt incredibly flat as the new 007, which was a shame because I thought the character had potential. Oh, and what the hell was up with that Norway chase scene where Bond just effortlessly brushed aside the baddies' cars like they were nothing? They'd drive up, he'd touch them, and they'd immediately wreck like they weren't even trying. It didn't feel like a battle or a challenge for Bond at all. It was just silly.
So yeah, it's a shame there's so much wrong with it because when it's good it's really quite good. The first half is mostly solid (Ana de Armas was amazing and needed to be in it more) and it's at least a marked improvement on the lifeless SPECTRE, but it's nothing like as good as Casino Royale or Skyfall. I've not seen Quantum of Solace recently enough to see if it pops this for the title of Craig's most middling Bond movie.
That was a bit more of a rant than I intended it to be... Anyway, I hope now that Craig's thrown in the tuxedo we can get back to Bond films being unashamedly fun.
