No Time to Die - SPOILER ALERT

[Howyoudoin]

SPOILER ALERT

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SPOILER ALERT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I saw the film at a preview screening and at the time I thought it was a solid 8 out of 10. I knocked a couple of marks off for the length of the film and convoluted plot but willing to add or subtract a point on second viewing (more likely the former).

My reason for posting is the Rotten Tomatoes ‘critics summary’ of the film. Which is: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_time_to_die_2021

“ It isn't the sleekest or most daring 007 adventure, but No Time to Die concludes Daniel Craig's franchise tenure in satisfying style.”

Erm, what?

A film where James Bond dies at the end of the film is ‘not daring’?

I don’t get it. Perhaps someone here can enlighten me.

HYD

[Laughton]

I haven't seen it - but maybe they're taking a leaf out of the Doctor Who playbook?

[nimnarb]

Hyd.. you still alive? ))

Well, I was not impressed. 6/10. Looked dated and definitely way too long plus far too similar on previous bond films. Best part for me was the sexy girl in the long black dress shooting all and sundry and should have been used more. But then, I’m getting old and now find I’m in the minority when it comes to taste.

[Howyoudoin]

Hyd.. you still alive? ))

Well, I was not impressed. 6/10. Looked dated and definitely way too long plus far too similar on previous bond films. Best part for me was the sexy girl in the long black dress shooting all and sundry and should have been used more. But then, I’m getting old and now find I’m in the minority when it comes to taste.

Ha. Yes, still alive. Posting this from Crimea with MIGs overhead. Hope you are well Branmin.

I’ve given up trying to defend the James Bond films so I won’t bother trying. Seems he is single handedly saving Cinema at the moment though. I wonder how long that will last.

HYD

[XFool]

I saw it yesterday.

Actually, it was the first James Bond film I've seen in the cinema since the 1970s, AFAIK! And I've seen no Daniel Craig ones and pretty well none of the others. So...!

I quite liked it - slightly surprised - though very long. As I expected, and as with all contemporary films, the action sequences are well 'over clocked' and therefore not realistic (brain says: "No") - one reason I don't like them.

I WAS surprised (see above) to so rapidly be presented with references to the George Lazenby Bond film: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. These ran through the film like Brighton rock, including the music. The film even ended with Louis Armstrong's "We have all the time in the world".

Indeed, I take it the film was, more or less, a kind of reprise of OHMSS. Perhaps (given the plot) a sort of mirror image of that film?

Given the plot (surely now well known) I stuck it out to the very end (a long wait these days!) to see what came up on the screen. I was expecting: "007 Will Return". But no, it was: "James Bond Will Return". So...

[XFool]

...So?

OK, anyone up for a discussion of what next for Mr. Bond? How are they going to start the 007 film No. 26?

I reckon I've cracked it - quick, simple and neat! Of course, I would think that wouldn't I? And really there is no reason at all to suppose I am in any way correct. But, I definitely think I know how the next one OUGHT to start - I can see (and hear...) it now. All derived from the plot/script/etc of film No. 25, NTTD.

I just need to stay alive long enough to discover if I am right, or wrong. Then again, if I do, will I even be able to remember...?

[SteMiS]

...So?

OK, anyone up for a discussion of what next for Mr. Bond? How are they going to start the 007 film No. 26?

I reckon I've cracked it - quick, simple and neat! Of course, I would think that wouldn't I? And really there is no reason at all to suppose I am in any way correct. But, I definitely think I know how the next one OUGHT to start - I can see (and hear...) it now. All derived from the plot/script/etc of film No. 25, NTTD.

I just need to stay alive long enough to discover if I am right, or wrong. Then again, if I do, will I even be able to remember...?

Thought the film was reasonably good fun although plot was a bit weak on a number of levels. The 'rumour' is they are planning a female bond next...mmm...and I did wonder if they'd just use the lady who had been assigned 007 in Craig's 'absence' at the start of the film. The king is dead, long live the...er King. Would tick a number of 'boxes' on a number of levels, I suppose....

The alternative is some sort of Deus ex Machina surival of Bond himself. Perhaps he disappeared into some sort of impregnable survival capsule, just before the end, or perhaps a re-run of the famous Bobby Ewing 'shower scene'...

[XFool]

I was in a bit of a quandry after posting. I thought it's so neat perhaps I shouldn't actually publish it...

After reading very many comments following the review of NTTD by David Mitchell in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/10/ah-mr-bond-i-was-expecting-you-to-entertain-me

I noticed that a very small number of posters had also hit on my idea, though less explained and worked out. Though it did also draw my attention to the idea not being so completely 'perfect' as I had thought, if you wanted to be a perfectionist wrt to a Bond film franchise, that is! In principle it could be seen to have retrospective issues vis-à-vis character continuity for past Bond films across different actors - but then, Bond is hardly real life.

I'd thought of all the obvious things, as everyone has. (The really hokey one is that he survives.)

Surely the key here is what you get if you take 50 from 2019. What you get is 1969. (The film is only showing now because of the pandemic - something else they accidentally scored with in NTTD!).

And like another Guardian poster wrote "this film could be seen as a reprise of On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - Yes! A thousand times yes. (Why do so few reviews mention this?). OHMSS was the 1969 Bond film - with George Lazenby. Recall the beginning, recall the end of OHMSS? Recall the beginning, recall the end of NNTD? Listen to NTTD at the start, the middle and the end. I stayed to the very end of NTTD, the very last music heard was the original Louis Armstrong recording of 'We Have All The Time In The World'... Heinz Wimmer's version was in the middle of NTTD and practically the first words spoken by James Bond were... "We have all the time in the world". The whole film was a kind of OHMSS through the looking glass.

I saw OHMSS back in 1969 (1970?). The question then was: "How do you make a James Bond film without James Bond (Sean Connery)?" Many thought then that James Bond (the film franchise) was "dead".

I only really now clearly remember one thing from OHMSS. The moment George Lazenby turned to the camera at the end of the action prelude and said: "This never happened to the other fella." Cue the JB theme music - James Bond was back!

In two instances in NTTD a line of dialogue is used: "007? It's just a number"

So if 007 is "just a number" then...

I can see it now (Bond No. 26) the action prelude, on a beach? (possibly); a beautiful woman? (possibly); she gets away... 'He' turns to the camera and speaks: "This never happened to the other fella." (possibly!). He turns briefly away, then turns back to camera, a quizzical look on his face. He speaks: "James Bond? It's just a name." Cue the JB theme music - James Bond is back!

[XFool]

...Well, it's a theory. I think it's neat, I think it would work, as effectively as it did for George Lazenby in 1969 following Sean Connery. We'll just have to wait and see.

[XFool]

I've been thinking about this again(!). I believe I can see it in the round now, what their intentions are.

When I read that comment on the David Mitchell Guardian article* by the person who had come to the same conclusion as me, they also said: "But they have no right to do this" (the film has generated a lot of feeling and comment) and pointed out the problem with going down the route of 'James Bond is just a name'. Namely that it seems at face value to break continuity with all the past history of Bond films - there is only one James Bond.

In particular, what does it do to the story of the long standing friendship between James Bond and Felix Leiter (even brought up strongly by Bond in NTTD)? Then I remembered: it isn't just Bond who dies in NTTD, Felix Leiter does too... Why?

Because he needs to? In other words, this is the passing of the old guard. The one true James Bond really did die in this film - notwithstanding his past portrayal by various actors; and his friend Felix Leiter went with him. So the next James Bond will be the first actual new 'James Bond'. This concept neatly keeps continuity with all the past James Bond films, as up to now it had always been just the one James Bond.

All sorted now?

(Ignoring that the Bond in NTTD would now be in his nineties! Possibly too much thinking for a Bond film?)


* Ah, Mr Bond. I was expecting you – to entertain me

The Guardian

[XFool]

James Bond: acclaimed writers explain how they would reinvent 007

The Guardian

Producer Barbara Broccoli has not yet decided how Bond will return in the next film – but here are some ideas

"It isn’t always easy to see how he’ll get to where he’s going next – and the franchise’s producer, Barbara Broccoli, isn’t sure either.

Speaking earlier this week, she admitted she hadn’t settled on how to reconcile the final scenes of No Time To Die – those who haven’t seen the film should turn away now – with the promise in the final credits that “James Bond will return”. "

This seems to come closest to my idea about the film:

Make way for a new generation
Manda Scott, the Edgar-award nominated author of A Treachery of Spies sees the denouement of No Time To Die as a very deliberate break with the past.

“Bond didn’t accidentally get blown to a million tiny pieces,” she writes. “This is the end of an era and we need to show its ending unequivocally so there is absolutely no way back.”

[XFool]

Who might replace Daniel Craig as the next James Bond?

BBC News

After 16 years, five films and one rather questionable pink tux, Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond sadly came to an end earlier this year.

"Let's start with the basics: one thing we do know is that the next Bond will be another man. "James Bond can be of any colour, but he is male," producer Barbara Broccoli said in 2020."

[Mike88]

I watched the film on Xmas Eve. I was disappointed and felt the film nowhere near lived up to the hype. As for Daniel Craig's replacement it seemed the film was setting was up for a female 007 next time around.

[Laughton]

As well as a new Bond they need to find a decent scriptwriter.

Is it just my failing memory or did the early films benefit from having a story that the viewer could buy into. No time to Die simply a series of car chase/gun fights scenes strung together. Of course the early films had the advantage of being based on great books - so maybe the producers could start with finding another great story teller before worrying too much about a replacement for Daniel Craig.

[XFool]

As well as a new Bond they need to find a decent scriptwriter.

Is it just my failing memory or did the early films benefit from having a story that the viewer could buy into. No time to Die simply a series of car chase/gun fights scenes strung together.

Surely that's a description of every Bond film that has ever been?

No Time to Die was controversial for more than one reason.

The news that it was Daniel Craig's last appearance as Bond. Plus how the film scriptwriters chose to manage Craig's exit from the film, which itself led to quite a kerfuffle:

1. A surprising amount of strong (and different) feelings in filmgoers - expressed in newspaper articles and comment sections (see above)
2. For some (e.g. me) a surprising amount of fascination over the nature of the film script, its obvious relationship to past Bond films, and trying to solve the puzzle:
"How and where does it go from here? "

Altogether, that seems quite a lot more than one usually expects from a Bond film (even if you didn't really enjoy it)!

[XFool]

I saw OHMSS back in 1969 (1970?). The question then was: "How do you make a James Bond film without James Bond (Sean Connery)?" Many thought then that James Bond (the film franchise) was "dead".

I only really now clearly remember one thing from OHMSS. The moment George Lazenby turned to the camera at the end of the action prelude and said: "This never happened to the other fella." Cue the JB theme music - James Bond was back!

In two instances in NTTD a line of dialogue is used: "007? It's just a number"

So if 007 is "just a number" then...

I can see it now (Bond No. 26) the action prelude, on a beach? (possibly); a beautiful woman? (possibly); she gets away... 'He' turns to the camera and speaks: "This never happened to the other fella." (possibly!). He turns briefly away, then turns back to camera, a quizzical look on his face. He speaks: "James Bond? It's just a name." Cue the JB theme music - James Bond is back!

Well that, in my opinion back in October 2021, was the 'beautiful' way to start Bond film No. 26. It still is IMO, it's so neat! (Should I write to them?) But we will have to wait to see how it is actually handled (let's hope it won't turn out to be: "With one bound he was free"). Meanwhile:

James Bond: Duo were 'privileged' to write new ending for 007

BBC News

They have written seven James Bond screenplays, including all the Daniel Craig films, and their previous collaborations date back over 20 illustrious years.