Film Review: “No Time To Die” (2021)

A near-perfect swan song for the era of Daniel Craig.

Ever since the age of 5, I grew up with 007. My first bond film was “The World is not Enough” starring Pierce Brosnan. I watched the hell out of that film and all of Brosnan’s other films. I played the games as well. My brother, cousins, and I played “Goldeneye” on the Nintendo 64 every summer back in the late ’90s. When I was in grade school, I played “007: Nightfire” every day after school.

I eventually went on to watch the other 007 incarnations: Connery, Moore, Dalton, and, of course, Daniel Craig. Every era had its own personality: Connery’s was a formal product of its time, Moore’s was overtly campy, Dalton was dark and grounded, Brosnan’s was reasonably campy, and Craig’s, for the most part, returned to the grounded tone of Dalton’s era while also trying to add in the gadget laced camp that a lot of fans have come to know. The current era of Daniel Craig has also been the first to be consistent in continuity. With No Time To Die being Daniel Craig’s final bow as Bond, does the era of Daniel Craig go out with a bang or a whimper?

After the events of 2015’s “Spectre”, James Bond (Craig) is retired and living peacefully with his wife, Dr. Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux). However, his retirement is short-lived once his old friend from the…