'No Time To Die' first reviews: “the most tender portrait of James Bond we've ever seen”
The first reviews for No Time To Die, which features Daniel Craig’s last performance as James Bond, have been released.
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The response to the film has been largely positive, with many hailing the film a fitting send off for the current 007.
In its four-star review, NME credited the film as “surprisingly emotional.”
“No Time To Die‘s depiction of a traumatised, battle-scarred soldier in search of happiness is skilful enough to make audiences care,” it continued.
Meanwhile, Variety has called the film the series’ best entry since Casino Royale. “An up-to-the-minute, down-to-the-wire James Bond thriller with a satisfying neo-classical edge,” read the review, while praising Craig for bringing out his character’s “hidden vulnerabilities.”
Elsewhere, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that the film was “the most tender portrait of James Bond we’ve ever seen” in spite of its lengthy runtime of 163 minutes.
Some however did not share the same viewpoint. The Independent called out the film for being “strangely anti-climatic.”
The review also made reference to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s contribution to the screenplay, saying that despite her “much-publicised contributions to the film’s script, No Time to Die hardly feels like the radical feminist rewrite we were promised.”
Empire on the other hand says that the film “does things that no Bond film has ever done, and despite relying heavily on tropes that feel not only familiar but comforting, it is the unfamiliar things it does that make this such an exciting entry.”
Speaking on the red carpet from the film’s premiere, Craig told the PA: “I’m just so grateful for the fact that I got a chance to go and make one last one and it be this one and to finish telling the story.
“This has been a massive part of my life. I’m never not going to think about this, it’s been too big a thing in my life.”