No Time to Die 2021

Honestly, they should have ended the Craig Bond series with Spectre so it could have ended on a higher note. Visually, there is a lot to appreciate. I can definitely see Linus’ style here, same with Jay Kelly (2025)'s peach highlights and blue shadows for daylight. Strong La La Land (2016) visuals with the pink and violet sunset. For night, strong neon colors paired with low key lighting. The Spectre party scene is pure La La Land and Babylon (2022) look. Linus really gives the film its own visual identity. The car chase sequence in Norway feels like an ad for Land Rover rather than a Bond movie. It looks polished and safe, I did not feel much action and thrill compared to the Spectre Austria car chase scene. But after that, the movie was redeemed because of the cat and mouse chase in the Norway forest scene. It reminds me of Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia (2022) with the atmospheric fog, where the environment itself feels cold, tense, and psychologically heavy. I also like the brutalist structure of Lyutsifer Safin’s place. The way the lighting matches the architecture makes it feel cold, massive, and almost alien. It actually made me imagine what Linus’ visuals would look like in Dune Part 3. The geometry, shadows, and controlled color palette already feel close to that kind of world. The continuous shot action in the last 30 minutes is nicely shot and choreographed. It gives the final stretch a more immediate and physical energy, and that is where the film finally feels more alive as an action piece. Speaking of Rami Malek’s character, he is not up to par with Mads Mikkelsen and Christoph Waltz’s enigmatic villain energy. He feels flat and insignificant. His character motivation feels bland, and he never fully becomes threatening enough for me. Lashana Lynch does not have the charm and angst for 007 too. Armas, even with a much shorter role, has way more gravity and screen presence compared to her. How many times do you get to see Bond so emotional, sad, and angry about a woman? That is not something we always get from him. This movie also leans into gadgets and sci-fi. The director usually chose the CGI route rather than the practical route. Maybe these are the factors that other people dislike about this movie. But I can also see why it has its own flavor. It is more serious, more investigative, and almost detective like in its spycraft. I am going to give this 2 stars instead of 1.5 stars just for the sake of Linus’ superb cinematography work here. But story wise, direction wise, and pacing wise, it is just weak.