NO TIME TO DIE - LITTLE CHANCE TO HEAR...

No Time To Die is the first James Bond 007 movie that I was far from enthused about going to see in a cinema (in fact, I was positively disinclined, and not because of Covid), so I didn't.  Casino Royale aside (and even it wasn't perfect), Daniel Craig's previous Bond films have failed to score with me, despite one or two good bits in each offering.  Craig's Bond is humourless and charisma-free, which isn't necessarily down to the actor, but the way the character is written.

Anyway, bought the DVD double-disc edition and was appalled on account of it being a 'mumble-fest', with me not being able to make out what the characters were saying throughout almost the whole movie.  I turned up the volume, adjusted the various sound-settings on my TV, but all to no avail.  Mumble, mumble, mumble.  And the movie looked too dark as well.  First time I've ever seen Jamaica looking like a wet afternoon in Skegness.

Remember when you could actually understand what actors were saying in movies, and when they were lit in a way which made everything clear and recognisable at first glance?  Those days are over it seems.  Bond movies used to have their own style, what with Ken Adam set designs, John Barry orchestration, and a quick-fire pacing that never seemed to abate.  Nowadays, Barbara Broccoli's mission seems to be to make Bond films look like every other movie out there.

She really needs to take a leaf out of the Mission Impossible cinematic outings, which are imaginative, humorous, action-packed, fast-paced, and far more engrossing and exciting than Bond's lacklustre efforts.  There are rumours that Bond is going to be rebooted again, with his adventures set in the '60s, but let's hope that now the seemingly dead* secret agent has a daughter, we aren't going to be subjected to 'Jane Bond' - or even a female carrying her father's name.  (Broccoli has dismissed the likelihood of the last part of that idea.)

Anyway, we're assured that James Bond will return, but in what form, shape, colour, or inclination remains to be seen.  Let's hope it's the real McBond, and not one from a parallel universe like Daniel Craig's seemed to be.

Verdict on No Time To Die?  An emotional ending, but far from a memorable journey getting there.  There was one 'innovation' this time though; instead of just reguritating ideas and stunts from previous films, this time out they 'borrowed' one of the songs from an earlier movie in the series.  Luckily, it was a good one. 

Have you seen the movie?  What were your thoughts on this latest offering from Eon Productions - hit or miss, or halfway in between?  And could you make out what they were saying?

*Incidentally, despite assurances of Bond's death, it should be remembered that author Ian Fleming killed him off at the end of From Russia With Love (the novel), but relented (no doubt after some pressure from his publisher) and returned him to life in the next book.  (Same thing happened, more or less, with Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional hero Sherlock Holmes.)

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