So much for my prior perception that Spectre would be Daniel Craig's last turn as James Bond. Well, it makes sense that an agent like him wouldn't stop having adventures just because he had resigned from MI6 after capturing Spectre leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). Spectre holds a grudge, for one thing.
Bond's long-time CIA buddy, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), first asks his help to locate abducted MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), whose work with nanobots could make it way too easy for terrorists to kill everyone with a genome sufficiently similar to a given target. Bond doesn't sign on until hearing from the new Agent 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch). Blofeld is indeed still a player from within his prison, but there are more than two sides in play here....
In some ways, this is more like a pre-Craig Bond flick than the other four Craig entries. The nanotech level isn't the only sci-fi aspect. Bond makes a bon mot after killing a key enemy. Q (Ben Whishaw) is even played for laughs a little.
That said, I've never seen Bond lock horns with M (Ralph Fiennes) to this degree. I half-expected the hero to be branded a wanted criminal. I also considered the possibility of M turning out to be a full-fledged villain in his own right.
More than that, this is the bleakest part of an already bleak subseries. Multiple established characters perish, giving the lie to the title. At least it produces a better class of sadness than usual: I cared more strongly.
Oh, the kid tag? Let's just say I'm kind of surprised that it took this long for Bond to suspect fruition from one of his many liaisons. The mother is Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), who debuted in the previous feature. We don't get a definite answer to his obvious question.
I have mixed feelings about the opening credit sequence. On one hand, it's one of the most creative, and I never expected to like a Billie Eilish number this much. OTOH, it doesn't stick with a visual theme. Maybe that's intended as a crowning of the 25th official Bond piece, but I think the artists just got carried away.
In terms of fun, NTTD is about par for the course. In terms of admirability, it's on the high end. An apt sendoff for Craig, but it leaves me wondering what the studio plans for next time.
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