JAMES BOND is back. And better still, he’s back as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson always intended: on the big screen.
At the world premiere of No Time to Die at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, the uncertainty of where the franchise is headed after 15 years led by Daniel Craig, or even the crucial details of how Amazon’s US$8.45 billion (RM35.35 billion) acquisition of Bond studio MGM is going to play out, didn’t seem to matter very much at all.
Fifteen months after its original April 2020 release date, surrounded by all the Union Jacks, brass bands and Royal Armed Forces soldiers one might expect at a Bond movie world premiere in Britain, Wilson remarked that while the wait was terrible, the film is finally coming out.
Despite a pandemic that brought the exhibition sector to its knees globally, the custodians of Bond did not break, instead digging their heels in, standing their ground and committing to a theatrical release.
On stage, Wilson gave a heartfelt thanks to studio partners MGM and Universal for ensuring the film had a cinema release.
“We’re thrilled to be sharing the 25th Bond film the way it was intended to be shown, and shot – on the big screen,” echoed director Cary Joji Fukunaga, before introducing 11 members of the cast, including Craig, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch and Rami Malek.
“Look at where we are. Look at this, look at us!” Craig remarked in his final valediction as Bond’s caretaker.
Craig later thanked Wilson and Broccoli, and dedicated the film to the UK’s frontline health workers.
Almost every scene in the long-anticipated feature, from its electric opening sequence through each inspired, action-packed set piece, will no doubt polarise fans, especially with a bombastic ending that will ensure the conversation around James Bond’s future continues blazing into 2022.
And if critics’ reactions are anything to go by, then No Time to Die most certainly brings the goods, with film critic Scott Mantz claiming that the film depicts Craig’s most grounded and intimate take on the ubiquitous spy.
“(It also has) a powerful, unexpected and very emotional payoff,” he added.
Fandango’s Erik Davis had praise for Fukunaga’s direction and writing.
“Classic Bond, classic villain, classic gadgets and a story that seems to question how much we still need James Bond to save the day,” Davis said on Twitter.
At the end of the film, a cheeky title card quickly flashes after the credits, promising: “James Bond Will Return.”
Broccoli has said that the Eon team will begin to discuss Craig’s successor in 2022.
