Bulletproof luxury sports cars, guns, high stakes, and poison islands. No Time to Die is the final James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig. Released in 2021, it is also the most vulnerable look at the character so far. The movie starts with a flashback to Madeleine Swann’s vivid childhood encounter with death. Swann, who first appeared in the previous movie Spectre, is one of the main characters and Bond’s love interest. She is intriguing, well written, and played expertly by Léa Seydoux.

Bond is forced out of retirement to retrieve a kidnapped scientist, Obruchev. Obruchev has questionable loyalties and was working on a top-secret genetic bioweapon. The action sequences are high quality, but the personal interactions and emotions are given more screentime. This allows the film to develop more deeply the characters that fans have watched for years. No Time to Die’s themes of family, companionship, and sacrifice make the movie tender and more relatable. Relationships deliver that have been built up for years and lift the story to new heights. The plot also has twists and revelations that are intentional and interesting.

Like previous Bond movies, the settings are eye-catching blends of natural beauty and human builds. The characters travel to many parts of the world with distinct local environments. The movie begins in a snowy forest with an isolated house on the edge of a frozen lake. Bond and Swann try to retire in a picturesque Italian town on a mountainside. One of the main action sequences unfolds in the misty woods of Norway. The beautiful shots of the environments combine perfectly with the soundtrack to set the tones of different parts of the movie.

No Time to Die combines excellent acting, tense and emotional moments, and outstanding cinematography to create a beautiful and bittersweet end to the Daniel Craig era. I rate it a 90 overall, with an 8 in cinematography, soundtrack, and editing, a 9 in plot, dialogue, directing, and “it” factor, and a 10 in attraction, theme, and acting. I highly encourage Bond fans to watch this well-crafted finale.