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No Time To Die
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‘Absolute beast’: critics go wild for No Time to Die,
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Daniel Craig’s last Bond film

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Despite
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No Time to Die, the James Bond film on which so
include personalising much has been pinned, received its
development
content or advertising
world premiere in London on Tuesday night, heralding what arguably the entire film
for you.
industry hopes will be a return to mass moviegoing after months of pandemic
shutdown. And
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UK broadsheet critics largely agreed that the film – supposedly Daniel Craig’s final
outing as happy
Yes, I’m Bond – had Manage
delivered in spades, with the Guardian, the Telegraph and the
my cookies
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”.

It's your choice

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Lashana Lynch,
experience Daniel Craig
in other and Lea
analyse Seydoux
and at the world audience
improve premiere of No Time To Die at the Royal Albert
insights
Hall
ways.in London. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
our services. This may and product
Reaction elsewhere is a tad more measured. Thedevelopment
include personalising influential US trade magazines are
content or advertising
broadly positive, with Owen Gleiberman in Variety calling it “an unabashedly
for you.
conventional Bond film that’s been made with high finesse and just the right touch of
soul, ashappy
Are you well as
to enough sleek surprise to keep you on edge’”, while the Hollywood
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Reporter’s David
To manage your Rooney
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now,that Caryhow
including Jojito
Fukunaga, theour
opt out where first American
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sensitivity” but is hampered by a plot “so convoluted and protracted you might find
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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
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.”

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