Thread by @JordanMBKing

#NoTimeToDie: A beautiful swansong for Craig’s Bond. It really does feel like the culmination of all that came before. The style and swagger of Casino Royale, the brutal viscera of QoS, the elegiac heft of Skyfall, the grandiose excess of Spectre - proper end of an era stuff.

Also, after waiting so long for a Bond who is human, who can cry, it feels somehow poetic that Craig’s final bow as 007 would be the first to promise a tear from us. The bombast and callbacks and quips are all well and grand, but it’s a huge relief to see emotion drive this film.

I’ll be writing my review on the way home in the morning to be published probably sometime in the afternoon at @FILMHOUNDSmag, but if you’ve been all-in on Craig’s James Bond, No Time To Die is a huge pay-off that writes cheques Cary Fukunaga cashes with considerable style.

Caveat to all the above, in case I sound dewy-eyed and overwhelmed, this isn’t Skyfall or Casino Royale. You feel that middle third considerably, Malek’s Safin is a far more interesting concept than a character, some callbacks are cumbersome, and there’s a big sense of the

filmmakers throwing everything at the kitchen sink here, which can be exhausting. But on an emotional and experiential level it just hits. I never imagined I’d end up caring deeply about a man who once stood only as a relic of Empire. but Craig changed all that. I’ll miss him.