No Time To Die

ANOTHER WAY TO DIE!

Finally, the latest Bond-movie arrives at cinemas. I watched it back in October 2021, but why reschedule all other post for being current, plus with almost a year after the movies release in the cinema and probably half a year or so with blu-rays and DVD:s no one can complain of spoilers, right? Great, cause we are diving deep into it. Movie starts out in Italy where Madeleine Swann from the last movie have taken Bond to see Vesper's grave so that he can process that, she is a psychologist after all. And she has memories of her mother's death and her rescue from a man in a mask. At the grave Blofeld left a SPECTRE calling card and blows the tomb up and a chase through the streets of the town. Bond gets away with Madeleine and dumps her on a train since due to his paranoia he believes she told Blofeld after he made a little call. We get a reversed goodbye on the train station as she runs through the wagons from inside and then Bond leaves.

Intro song... and I don't like it. Why are the Craig songs so boring (with exception of Another Way to Die, but that one everyone else hates)? Where's the pop-rock songs like the 80's that pump you up for the movie?  Still, movies return to London 5 years later where a group of special commando infiltrates a secret virus laboratory... FINALLY! A decent Craig plot, and written before the pandemic since it was supposed to be released in 2020 so they wrote it in what, 2018-2019? They also kidnaps one of the scientist that gives them the secret bio-weapon Hercules that... wait, is that the doctor from My Hero?

It is!!!

Didn't live long but that was fun. Where was I? Oh yeah, Hercules. A nanobot bio-weapon that targets specific DNA-codes meaning it acts as an assassin, the side-effect being that it even targets family members since they have similar genetic codes... it's FoxDIE from the Metal Gear Solid-series. Funny that a plot from the video games version of James Bond is being used in the actual James Bond-series. So this was a black ops laboratory so MI6 wants to keep a lid on the story. So in Jamaica CIA with Felix Leiter tries to recruit Bond to get the scientist first. After a run in with the new 007 that tells him to stay away Bond obviously joins with CIA. He head to Cuba, teams up with a CIA operative and infiltrates a SPECTRE party, where they release Hercules and kills all SPECTRE agent present since the scientist switched the code that was targeted for Bond himself. After a scuffle with the new 007, the SPECTRE body guards and lastly the cuban police. Bond and the CIA operative wins the struggle and Bond escapes with the scientist in 007 airplane. He met Leiter and another CIA-agent on a ship out at sea, but turns out that the CIA-agent is actually working for the other team and shoot Leiter and escapes on the plane with the scientist. After blowing up the ship, Leiter dies and Bond heads to London.

In London Bond tries to get information from M and Q and Moneypenny. After getting some information from a USB the scientist had Bond is allowed to meet Blofeld in prison together with his psychiatrist, Madeleine Swann, who got a meeting from her old rescuer that want her to use Hercules on Blofeld. She leaves before Blofeld arrives, but not before Bond takes her arm where she applied the formula. So Blofeld dies after a skirmish with Bond after Blofeld tells him that Madeleine was innocent to the bomb at the tomb. Regrouping 007 is sent after the rouge CIA-agent while Bond is looking for Madeline. Which takes him to Norway and the old house of the White family. Where it turns out she has a 5-year old daughter Mathilde. Gee, I wonder who the father can be. They also have Norwegian children show in the background so that was fun listening to another language that I understand. She also tells us that the bad guy is Safin, the only survivor of a family of poisoner employed by SPECTRA that Blofeld did away with. And then he shows up, kidnaps Madeleine and Mathilde and Bond and 007 joins with Q on a plane toward the Chinese sea to an island between Japan and Russia where abnormal activity have beed detected. Turns out it's Safin's family home that now returned to him and he started mass-producing Hercules. So the agents gotta infiltrate the base and... wait, now it's getting ridicules. 

Looks familiar?

Well, Metal Gear might have stolen that idea from Escape from LA.

They infiltrate the base, rescue Madeleine and Mathilde and Bond is opening the missile blast doors so that the whole base can be destroyed by a missile strike from the Royal Navy. But Safin interfers and is able use a special vial of Hercules on him that is programmed with Madeleine's genetic code so that he can't be near either Madeline or their daughter. So he decides to stay as the bombs rain downs on the island so while climbing up the control tower... what did the writers do? Play Metal Gear all day?

The references never stop.

Climbing to the top he talks with Madeleine over comm-radio saying his goodbyes...

All that is missing is the title song playing.

And then the island blows up and we go to London where the gang from MI6 mourns his death and then back to Italy with Madeleine and Mathilde as We Have All the Time of the World starts playing by Louis Armstrong which have been hinted all over the movie so as someone said, this is very much a reimagining of In Her Majesty's Secret Service. They even use the title song from that movie in the score when M tells Bond about Blofeld and Madeleine. Hans Zimmer, musical genius. 

So as first impression, I liked it. The plot works and it's a pity it wasn't released just before the Pandemic since now it would seem like it just took the headlines while the truth is it was written before it. Music's (beside the title track) great with the call backs and such. Fun how they handle the call for a female or person off colour to be 007 by giving them exactly that. But the Craig movies overall is a bit weird in the continuation of all the movies, since they pretty much waived away that and assumed that it was all Bond. But Craig starts and ends with him. Well, besides Judy Dench. And I assume Ralph Fiennes and the others of MI6 will return for the next movie. One negative is that the main bad guy is a bit weak in his plans, since he's pretty much was gonna sell Hercules. Why not go all out Hugo Drax or Stromberg? Especially Drax since the first look of the Hercules look like the virus containers from Moonraker. Bond villains ain't as crazy as they used to be.