Declan Burke: No Time To Die is the most enthralling Bond movie since Casino Royale

It even has a proper love story 

Daniel Craig playing James Bond in the new Bond film No Time To Die.

★★★★★

There’s a lovely moment in No Time to Die (12A) when the retired James Bond (Daniel Craig) presents himself at the front desk at MI6 and, having given his name as Bond, is subsequently obliged to tell the uncomprehending security guard that his full name is ‘Bond, James Bond.’ 

The comic flourish blends one of the classic tropes of the Bond franchise with a poignant reminder that this particular 007 has run his course, and sets the tone for the rest of the movie: a car chase in which the Aston Martin has its finest hour, a reworking of old lines and songs (and especially the theme from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), a villain’s lair that could have been built from the blueprints used by Dr No. Indeed, the whole movie is an extended (163 mins) victory lap for a craggy, world-weary Bond, who is now superfluous to requirements and has been superseded by a dynamic new 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch). 

And yet, and yet ... as Spectre and Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) recede into history, a new global threat appears in the shape of the insane Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), whose devilish scheme is not to achieve world domination, but its obliteration. 

The writers – Neal Purvis, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga, with the latter directing – have taken on a gargantuan task, that of laying to rest the old 007 mythology whilst simultaneously broadening its horizons, and the result is the most enthralling Bond movie since Daniel Craig’s first outing in Casino Royale (2006). 

There’s a proper love story, for starters, between Bond and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), and a villain (Rami Malek in excellent form) who is terrifyingly plausible: most importantly, perhaps, we get a James Bond who is, despite his repeated escapes from seemingly impossible life-or-death scenarios, achingly vulnerable, and a finale that is as devastating as it is unexpected. At the risk of stating the obvious, No Time to Die is – finally – a Bond movie that will leave you shaken and stirred. (cinema release)