I wanted a place to discuss the latest Bond film "No Time To Die"(NTTD).  I was fortunate enough to be able to see it last night at an early screening.  I haven't made up my mind if I like it or not.

So, let's talk about the 25th James Bond movie.  The fifth with Daniel Craig as OO7, and unfortunately, his last.  Fair Warning!  If you continue to read past this paragraph there are SPOILERS!!  I WARNED YOU!!!

First off the movie is lllooonnnggg, and in some areas you feel it slogging on.  It clocks in at 2:48, and my keester felt every second.  The opening sequence before the credits was easy 20 minutes and almost every snippet from any trailer is taken from this sequence.  Yes, even the DB5 donutting with the gatling guns!  With that said, I thought the story was intriguing.

For well over a year the Bond Franchise and Aston Martin have been hyping this film because of the four different Astons that were to be featured in the film.  The DB5 took up most of the opening sequence and the V8 Vantage was also well represented.  The "other" OO7 drove the brand new DBS sparingly, and not well.  But, the major disappointment in this film concerning the Aston Martin's was the brand new Valhalla.  The Valhalla is Aston's new hypercar, and it was touted as having a role in the movie.  It didn't.  Unless, you call a 10 second shot of it sitting in the back of Q's workshop.  How disappointing.  In "Spectre" the DB10 had a large chase scene before it was jumped into the Tiber.  The DB10 was especially made for James Bond, only 10 were built and eight were used in the movie.  It was never a consumer automobile, Aston went from the DB9 to the DB11, granted the 11 is heavily influenced by the 10, but still.  So I thought that having the Valhalla in the movie it would actually be driven!  Boy was I wrong!

Daniel Craig's Bond has taken us on a ride through his entire career.  In the opening scene of "Casino Royale" we see how James becomes a Double O and in "NTTD" we see him retired in Jamaica.  Of course he doesn't stay retired, so they needed to "finish" James' story arc that was started in "Casino".  At the end of the movie I feel the story could have taken two directions and both of them would have been equally powerful.  The villain, Safin, in the movie is ready to use a weapon that targets DNA, it is a micro-bug that targets specific DNA.  In theory you can introduce it into a room and it will only kill one person, or one family since they share DNA characteristics.  The rest of the people would then be carriers NEVER being able to get rid of the micro-bug.  During the movie we find out that Madeline has had James' daughter, he finds out she is his near the end.  Safin "infects" Bond with a micro-bug that will kill Madeline, and consequently the daughter.  After they are safe from harm James decides to stay behind and in the end he dies.  Yes, they killed James Bond.  I feel what would have been more torturous to James, over the rest of his life, would have been to never be able to touch, or be around his "family" for the rest of his life.  Never being able to hug, or kiss them would have been a better way for the now dead Safin to exact his revenge.  Instead, I feel, the directors took a far easier way out and killed him.  I know it cleans up the story arc that Craig started in "Casino", but Bond has never had to die to change actors before.  To me, this was the biggest gut punch to the diehard fan. 

I was relieved to see that at the very end of the credits that the old familiar line was still there, "James Bond Will Return". I had heard rumors before the release of "NTTD" that Bond would die and that a new OO7, a woman, would take over.  Seeing that line and not OO7 Will Return, or some other such garbage was refreshing to this cynical old man.

Thanks for reading.  I really did like the movie, now that I've had some time to think and after writing this post.  The story was really good and some familiar faces are back.  As a Bond fan there are some "Easter Eggs" sprinkled throughout.  So, let's talk about "NTTD", James Bond, Aston Martins and anything else Bond related.  I've even read all of the Ian Fleming penned books, if you want to talk about those.

Doc