`No Time to Die’ the swan song of Craig – is it curtains to Bond movies too       

                                                                                                                                      By S Prabhakar

Today i watched the latest and 25th edition of Bond movie `No Time to Die'.   Like any other Bond   movies, i was so excited and went with lot of expectation which i was sure the movie will surpass.   But i was so disappointed or should i say i was so shocked that in the long 2:45 hours movie i never felt as if i was watching a Bond movie.   Bond movies are known for their high production values, lavishly mounted sets, multiple foreign locations, edge of the seat action scenes, larger than life Villain character with an ambition to conquer and/or destroy the world.   Right from Dr. No, the Bond Villains were ahead of their time in technology, operating from gigantic dens and operating many sophisticated things by click of button, they are ably supported by their special right hand man, with specially fitted teeth, hand, etc.,   Coming to the Bond they were always charming, sweeping gorgeous girls off the feat, crisp dialogue delivery.   The Stunt directors and the doubles are the back bone and they never disappointed in raising the bar of action scenes.    The car/bike/boat chases, the mid air fights and records breaking jumps from icy mountains leave audience asking for more. 

 In `No Time to Die’ none of them were present.  It is a sequel to Spectra  which was also equally boring.   Every bond movie starts with a fantastic action scene followed by a super hit title song with innovative titles.    In this edition the opening sequence itself dragged and the car chase and action scene is so lousy that any ordinary Indian action movie will have a better care chase scene.,  (watch any VV Vinayak, Raja Mouli, Trivikram Telugu movie or Rohit Shetty Hindi Movie).   The story line is wafer thin, villain is week, Craig,  as Bond is looking so old and worn out and throughout the movie he was emoting and somber like Dilip Kumar.   Instead of threatening the world with a nuclear war, virus or pitting a super power against another super power, shockingly the villain is busy with personal Vedanta, like a Dara Singh movie of 70s.   No bond girls, no spectacular locales as you find Bond brooding all the time indoors.    Right from the opening scene to the climax Bond gets beaten, shot at and struggle to stand on his legs what to talk about doing over the top action scenes.    It is hard to shallow the tame end given to Board.  

In the last decade or so ever since CAG has taken over and Hollywood became busy in making movies like Avataar and Avengers they lost touch with making the real action movies.   Unlike Indian (specially Telugu and Tamil movies), and Chinese movies they did not take advantage of cable technology to create lavishly mounted action movies with lot of hand combat and chases.      Craig has already announced that it is going to be his last Bond movie, but i strongly feel that the franchisee should also think of stop making Bond movie if they cannot make any better movie than this.   Die hard Bond fans like me have so many fantastic memories about all bond movies that we do not want Bond movie to slip any further than this movie.   I am so disappointed that my appetitive for action movies will become normal only after I  organise a Action movie Week of my own and  watch again fascinating action movies like True Lies, Eraser, Rocky series, Rambo Series, MI Series, Armour of the God 1 & II, XXX, Face Off, Broken Arrow, The Man with Golden Gun, Live and Let Die, Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies.   

S. Prabhakar

9.10.2021