I saw the latest James Bond movie No Time To Die this past weekend, and I loved it. This is Daniel Craig’s last as the titular secret agent, and it closes a storyline that ran through his tenure as the iconic character.

All the hallmarks of a Bond movie were there. Lots of gadgets, exotic locations, beautiful women, romance, and things blowing up. There’s an unusual theme for a Bond move- family. Bond discovers his own family ties.

It starts shortly after the events of Spectre- Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) is in jail, and Bond gets takes Madeleine to Europe. As is the norm, Bond’s past catches up with him, and he thinks she’s betrayed him and they end up parting ways on a train platform. Post opening credits, it’s a five-year jump and Bond has ‘retired’ to the Caribbean where he lives in comfortable isolation until his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffery Wright) comes calling, and unknowingly leads him into a trap baited by someone producing weaponized poison that can target a specific person or groups of people. The entire movie leads Bond, and company on a race to figure out who the mysterious bad guy is, and how they’re producing this poison, and why.

It’s franchise in a bit of a transition. Nobody knows who the next Bond will be, and the movie feels like it. That’s not a bad thing, as the movie plays more like an ensemble piece instead of resting solely on Daniel Craig’s shoulders. Lashanna Lynch’s presence allows Craig a chance to be freer to play him as romantic lead- with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), and with the humour. There were scenes with M, and Q, and Moneypenny where it was obvious how much he was having irritating the others with the banter.

My grade is 9/10- It’s a movie I will watch again, maybe buy it if it comes on DVD (DVD’s are still a thing right?)

Speaking of the Next Bond...

For the fun of it: I like Henry Cavill, James Norton, Tom Ellis, and Ryan Reynolds. Here me out on Reynolds. Bond is said to have been based on Canadian superspy William Stephenson known to be a good friend of Ian Flemming. But a Canadian actor has never played him. Maybe it’s time.

I keep going back and forth on whether a woman should the character. If there is one franchise that should be able to remain intact, as pure escapism it should be the Bond franchise. However Lashanna Lynch’s character works, because it opens the actor playing Bond up to being funny, and romantic as well as the save the world type of alpha. It’s about the franchise’s direction- if it shifts to an ensemble, she could be the next Bond. Shifting to an ensemble would separate it enough from Daniel Craig to allow the next Bond the room to make it their own.