Time for No Time to Die

© by Gerald So | 5:00 PM

I'm not much a fan of the thread connecting Daniel Craig's five Bond movies. As with any Bond actor's run, I've enjoyed some entries (Casino Royale, Skyfall) more than others, but the continuity meant No Time to Die had little chance of improving my overall opinion of Craig's run, and it didn't.

The stakes did seem more personal than ever for Bond, as his wife Madeleine becomes the key to learning more about a DNA-targeting poison gas Blofeld intended to use on Bond, but that someone else reconfigured, killing almost alll SPECTRE agents. Retired from the British SIS, Bond joins the action as a favor to his CIA friend Felix Leiter.

Bond trails Blofeld's mysterious enemy to an island set up to mass produce the poison gas. The only solution is to destroy the island with a missile strike before Blofeld's enemy or any world powers can exploit it. If all this sounds contrived to you, it plays contrived, too. As he narrowly paves the way for the missile strike, Bond falls prey to the poison.

Daniel Craig's Bond run will be remembered for its continuity and seemingly definitive end—only this won't be the last Bond movie ever, so there's less point in its definitive end.

The usual benefit of continuity is the audience is better able to connect with characters and grow that connection over multiple episodes. The Bond movies, however, weren't particularly related before Craig. Bond as traditionally presented by EON hasn't been someone the audience needed to connect with very much. He's a fantasy character who performs fantastic feats, not the kind to seek deep, human connection. There are points in the series—On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Timothy Dalton's run, and now Craig's—when the audience has been able to empathize with Bond, but that empathy doesn't last. Certainly if EON continues trying to humanize Bond with the next actor, they'll be criticized for repeating themselves.