Double_Oh_7

The character is DEAD. This can't be just another routine Bond reboot with a new actor. And if it is, it cheapens this ending; signaling there are no stakes for James Bond when they can just bring him back willy-nilly.

dex14

The Daniel Craig iteration is DEAD. They will cast a new Bond and start again.

The previous 24 films had pretty much zero stakes for Bond.

The movie still ends with JAMES BOND WILL RETURN.

mwbmis

I think it's a fair question whether this should have been the end of the franchise....period, but they obviously aren't going to do that so it's not really worth the time to consider it. Doing this does make it more likely to go in a different direction with Bond casting.

Decker

If The Dark Knight Rises hadn't wiped out and ended with Batman dying in the bomb explosion, would anyone complain when a different Batman returned in a new film series? Of course not.
This is just like that.

Double_Oh_7

Dead characters come back in comic books all the time. Bond should be above that. Bond's wife Tracy never came back, and that death still resonates in No Time to Die.

dex14

It does? Tracy doesn't exist in the Craig films.

mwbmis

If anything No Time to Die is the more modern interpretation of OHMSS, with Madeline subbing for Tracy. The movie isn't subtle about that. Since they were using the two main themes from OHMSS, I kept waiting for "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?"

Decker

I thought Vesper substituted for Tracy.

Shannon Nutt

I hope they go back to the way it was before Craig - where every new Bond was kinda/sorta supposed to be the SAME guy. If they're going to reboot Bond with every new actor, I think I would lose interest. My interest in Batman movies has lapsed somewhat exactly because of this.

dvd-4-life

When Connery returned as Bond after skipping a movie they did mention in Diamonds Are Forever that he was off on a Holiday so they did continue somewhat with the series remaining the same but I do remember Felix Leiter getting is leg removed by a shark in one of Dalton's movies and he has returned with no mention of Felix Leiter's missing leg because he did survive the shark attack.

mwbmis

Vesper is a character from the novel Casino Royale, and while there are some story differences her character's fate is the same including Bond's final line about her in the book and the movie ("the bitch is dead"). Certainly, she has loomed over the entire Craig series, but I think that is in part because of how good Eva Green was, and the fact they were never really able to develop another interesting Bond girl over the next three films. For actual plot purposes, Judi Dench is the "Bond girl" in Skyfall.

rocket1312

Leiter never returned in the Brosnan movies. He was effectively replaced by Joe Don Baker's character. Leiter didn't return until the Craig series, which again, is its own little universe.

Decker

Not entirely.

Daytripper

Seems to be the general consensus with all my friends and most posts online.

https://www.avclub.com/with-one-thri...d-s-1847817882

Decker

Yeah, it's a knockout performance. I wish she was in more of it, though it would be weird given how much of the film is devoted to Madelyn's plight.

rocket1312

To answer my own question, of course Roger Moore had a hilarious run in with a kid. I've been rewatching a bunch of the series and in Man With The Golden Gun there's that scene where the Thai kid fixes Bond's boat for him but instead of paying him, Bond chucks him off the side into the water. How could I have forgotten that one? So far that's the only other appearance by a kid I've found in the series, but I've only rewatched about half of them.

devilshalo

While they aren't exactly kids, the two sisters that help Bond escape the dojo are supposed to be school girls in MwtGG.

Hokeyboy

Oh come on now A 60 year old code name?? Even by the most forgiving of standards, this would be the "Alan Smithee" of spy names. Everyone in the espionage world would know it, no one would be fooled for a single second, and any agent who even suggested using the name would be laughed out of the service.

Hokeyboy

There shouldn't be any continuity with the James Bond movies, unless it serves that particular story.

Blind adherence "Continuity" is the death of good storytelling.

Hokeyboy

Okay ANYWAY... my quick review: loved it. Craig's Bond went out with a huge bang; he never had faced the "supervillain with a world-ending plotline/motivation" before, which meant that this time he was facing his highest and most devastating stakes ever. The other "Bonds" kind of faced this often enough that it became old hat.

Malek's villain was okay. Malek himself played the hell out of the role, but I think Stuckmann said it best when he mentioned that the villain's plan and weaponry was more interesting than the villain itself. Everything else was great. Amazing cinematography, and beautifully-shot action scenes you can actually watch and follow.

A high 4 out of 5 for me. I never felt the movie was overlong or dragged or anything. Pretty riveting from start to finish. They should give Ana de Armas an Oscar just for breathing.

Bacon

4/5 above average but not my favorite

B5Erik

The first thing I noticed was All The Time In The World, the OHMSS instrumental version, was right up front at the beginning. It pretty much gave away the idea that someone important was going to die.

This was a really good movie. A tad long, but there's not much I would have taken out (maybe 10 minutes worth), and it didn't feel as long as it was. Craig was excellent, and Jeffrey Wright gave his best performance as Felix to date. He was really, really good. And no one has mentioned it - but Leiter died, too! That never happened before. Yeah, Hedison's 2nd performance as Leiter (one with Moore, one with Dalton) saw Felix nearly get killed and a leg chomped off by a shark. But, to me, that was a pretty big deal, too.

I was very happy with this one. Better than Spectre, which I liked. Hell, I've liked ALL of the Craig Bond movies. QOS gets a bad rap because of the horrible camerawork and editing, but the story is great and Craig is very Daltonesque (which I love). I'm giving this one 4.25/5

It will be interesting to see if they continue the next rebooted series the way they did from Connery through Dalton's run. That was the same character, with a slightly sliding time scale (like in comic books). Or will they just reboot for every actor now? To me, it would make more sense to do it the way they did in the first run, but we'll see what happens.

Abob Teff

Damn, I must just be overly grumpy anymore ... This was middling and disappointing, at best. Plot holes galore with villains so shallowly written that I am not sure if they were even actually in the movie. The high points were OK, but I cannot think of too much that will be memorable. It is Spectre and Quantum of Solace all over again.

That. Nolan's Batman Trilogy rides the high tides of one movie with one mediocre one and one hot mess. Craig's run at Bond has about the same stats spread out over two more movies. This was the Dark Knight Rises of this series. There was some really good stuff here, but it was so butchered, re-hacked, and reworked that it did not work.

And that. The serialization worked as well here as it did in the Star Wars sequel trilogy ... when you have no plan, you have no where to go.

I would love if the next iteration of Bond did not take place in current day: take us back to the original timeline. If we are staying modern, I wouldn't mind a continuation with Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas. Neither character was given enough to do in this film (and both were sexy AF).

As for recasting, a big recurring theme in this movie was that 007 was "just a number."

Artman

Saw it for the 2nd time in IMAX last night. I think there's 10-15min here that could've been cut to at least bring the film down to 2.5hrs, but I still very much enjoyed this one.

The issue w the Craig films is they didn't know if the 3rd or 4th films would be his last, so we're left with three out of five films dealing with Bond's age and retirement. I expect the next Bond actor will sign a six film deal, so that should help with a more cohesive storyline, and more of Bond in his prime. (and no more than three yrs between installments)

B5Erik

But James Bond isn't just a (code) name. That much is clear from this series.