“No Time to Die” (2021) is the fifth and final James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig as everyone’s favorite spy. Resuming where “Spectre” (2015) left off, Bond has retired until Felix Leiter persuades him to get back in the game and locate a scientist that Spectre kidnapped from an M16 laboratory. He discovers that Spectre is not the biggest game in town and returns home to get answers only to discover that past events did not unfold the way that he thought. As he reassesses his decisions, he must defend an old flame and her family from this bigger threat.

I am not into Bond, but Craig so I was going to see “No Time to Die” whenever it got released, pandemic or not. With a two-hour forty-three minute run time, I went in a little daunted because as much as I like Craig, a three hour Bond movie does not sound like a good idea especially when “Quantum of Solace” (2008) exists. The time flew by, and I am happy to report that it is an entertaining film that feels like an apology for Spectre’s short-comings and satisfyingly concludes Craig’s reign. While it is no “Casino Royale” (2006) or “Skyfall” (2012), I would watch it again. 

“No Time to Die” starts like a horror film. I never understood what the franchise saw in Madeleine Swann, Bond’s latest love interest from “Spectre,” but in this film, the franchise finally fleshed out her character to get us invested in her plotline and retroactively made her careless actions in the prior installment make sense. If she has been fighting this long, you too would go for a walk without protection at night. It makes sense that this film got released in October because Swann as a final girl against the Boogeyman was more interesting than as the latest in a long line of women to fall for Bond’s charms. I went from rolling my eyes over the trope that brunettes were bad, and blondes were good until this film. The writers and Lea Seydoux redeemed Swann by distinguishing her independently from her relationship with the protagonist. Even without Bond, I could appreciate her instinct for survival, severely missing though touted in her initial appearance in the prior installment. 

As a Bond film, “No Time to Die” pays homage to the franchise’s mythology, and every recurring character has a moment in the spotlight. If you watch Bond movies to learn more about Bond than saving the world, then you may be pleased to know that it ties up a lot of loose ends for the character without sacrificing what we enjoy about the character. Craig’s action sequences are memorable whether he is in a shootout in Cuba, pulling a Rambo in a stunning Norwegian forest sequence or fighting the baddie’s henchmen on his island lair in the denouement. There is also a lot of unexpected humor amidst the pathos as years of fornicating finally catch up to him, and he faces the consequences of loving and leaving them. Craig plays it wordlessly with sensitivity and conveys everything about this awkward realization in a kitchen scene where he makes breakfast in Swann’s house. 

I do not understand why critics hated “No Time to Die.” Maybe it is because this film ventured to do things with Bond that the franchise has never explored before, and they feel as if this film spoils the fun of a playboy, remorseless agent. As someone not into Ian Fleming’s creation, the ending made elegant sense and was a satisfying conclusion.

If “No Time to Die” wanted to make more money without Craig, it should release sidequels involving the women agents who cross Bond’s paths and missions take place off screen. Lashana Lynch as the latest 007 gets underutilized, but I kept imagining her venting on her missions about some old guy who appeared out of nowhere and was messing up her work. She would be office politics Bond rolling her eyes at M16’s dysfunction. When the old and new agents team up, and she finally decides to use her license to kill, I secretly wanted a montage of all the bad guys that she offed, not because she had to, but because she was secretly on a pet mission to protect black people from the latest attempt at genocide. If I was not familiar with Lynch from seeing her in “Captain Marvel” (2019), her character would not be memorable. The franchise made her into a token, not a pioneer.

Ana de Armas, who was the protagonist and worked with Craig in “Knives Out” (2019), steals the show as a baby agent in the Cuba sequence. Her innocent enthusiasm contrasting with her sexy, lyrical fighting style evoked an image Marilyn Monroe if she became an action star. Her serendipitous spontaneity compared to Bond’s brutal bulldozer improv made a great combo like sweet and sour. 

Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin gave a memorable performance as the latest madman although the writers did not effectively convey what his actual plan was except kill a lot of people and somehow he is on top. Malek uses his still and eerie presence to cover any deficiencies in his actual character development, and I enjoyed his character’s reaction to tiny acts of rebellion. I decided to pretend that Safin was Michael Myers when it is not Halloween because that explanation is the only reason that he survives so many assassination attempts. “True Detective” executive producer and director Cary Joji Fukynaga uses the villain’s lair and wardrobe to pay homage to his Japanese heritage. The overall package works, but disintegrates upon closer analysis. The denouement set in the villain’s island lair would have benefited from a guest directorial appearance from Jessica Hausner, who wrote and directed “Little Joe” (2019), a visually riveting, but ultimately disappointing film about a corporation developing new plants. 

While the villain was not well thought out, if I have a bone to pick with “No Time to Die,” it is because the film raises the stakes against Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) then drops that part of the plot like a hot potato.

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Mallory was basically a war criminal, violated international law and created a high-profile diplomatic crisis, but he still has his job and gets to read a little passage in honor of Bond’s sacrifice. Um, WHAT?!? THE FUCK. All his underlings basically had a mutiny because they were suspicious of him, but now we are cool and bygones. Um, no. The Craig series has increasingly made M into a figure politically held accountable then drops the ball when M decides to dip into eugenics. I was really excited that the film opened with Leiter acknowledging how fucked up our respective government executive elected leaders are, but not punishing Mallory for not only creating a dangerous biological weapon but getting the most important agent killed seemed like a big miss. No, you don’t get to read Jack London! Go to Blofeld’s cell!

Shout out to Moneypenny, who clearly needs to be the next M although maybe the job requires military service, and I don’t have her resume. She has more judgment and basically saved the world by maneuvering behind the scenes to put brains and brawn together. Also it was nice to see Naomie Harris having a prosperous fall with “No Time to Die” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (2021).