No Time To Die (2021)

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch

Have I Seen it Before: Where to even begin with a question like that? The film was originally scheduled to be released in April of 2020. I had even scheduled some time off to make a day of it.

We all know what happened there.

In fact, this is the first new movie* since Birds of Prey (2020) I’ve seen in the theater. This is also the first new movie showing only in theaters that I had any interest in seeing immediately. When it comes to Bond, it feels like the biggest screen possible is the way to go, so I booked a seat on Monday afternoon at the biggest theater I could find…

…and it was nearly abandoned, because the world is still pretty fucked up, right? It’s almost as if the theatrical experience is less about the collective experience** of a film and more about the seeing epic cinematography on the largest palette possible in a room that naturally eschews distractions.

I’m also struck by the little pieces of the theatrical experience. Seeing a melange of trailers, and being thoroughly disinterested in some (Jackass Forever) and being completely entranced by others which had not really been on my radar up until that point (Last Night in Soho). It had also been an astonishingly long time since I sat in a dark room, waiting for things to get started, and the prevailing thought I have racing through my mind is: “Did I forget to lock my car? I’m not going all the way out to the parking lot to check.

It was almost like it was early 2020 again. If only for a moment.

Did I Like It: Whew. After all that, is there anything left to talk about?

Plenty.

I’ve always thought On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) was a throughly underrated entry in the Bond series. It’s scope is top-notch, it’s (relatively) grounded story harkens to the best that Ian Fleming’s books had to offer. The final moment is heartbreaking, and only undercut by the fact that Connery isn’t in the role so we could watch what was left of his heart break. He could have also torn through Diamonds Are Forever (1971) like a wild animal, instead of what we got… Even if Lazenby had either decided or been allowed to stick around in the role, that wrenching pathos might have been there in retrospect. Given that he was a one-off, that moment doesn’t quite reach the heights it could have.

Well, now we’re here.

I might say that this film owes a bit too much to Service, having to create at least part of its context through references to that earlier film’s dialogue and soundtrack. This is ultimately a minor complaint, because Craig’s longevity in role establishes that context in spades. It makes the story of his Bond a complete one, and earns that pathos.

There had always been a disconnect in the series (both in print and on film) where Bond’s more prurient impulses are often written off to an acute sense of mortality, but there’s never a moment where his continuing, perpetual survival is in doubt. That’s no longer the case. The film might be a little on the engorged side, and this only serves to make the climax perhaps an inch too intricate for its own good, but those are minor concerns, especially when we’re less than twenty years away from Die Another Day (2002).

I don’t know where the series may go from here, but I’m delighted by the possibilities. I stayed until the very end of the credits to ensure that, indeed, “James Bond will return.” 

Some might complain about a degree of demasculinization for the character, but I’m not with this line of thinking in the slightest. I’ve been walking a little bit taller and a bit more confidently now, days after I took in the film. Both this film and Craig’s time in the role will be remembered as all-time heights for the series. I’d say the potential complainers need to get over themselves, but I don’t need to tell them that. They’re going to get over it all on their own without my help.

*Since getting my full round of vaccinations, I have been to anniversary screenings of Fargo (1996) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

**Come to think of it, more often than not, the majority of other people are a thing to endure in a movie theater. In this instance, all I needed was one person to blurt out something along the lines of “This kinda crap would never have happened when Roger Moore was around!” to bring down the whole experience.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Directors: Anne Boden, Ryan Fleck

Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Lashana Lynch

Have I Seen it Before: Tempting to say yes, as the superhero genre has consistently risked reverting to a very bland mean, but I’m pleased to say this film has enough of a unique feel to bring me straight to the answer to my next question.

Did I Like It: Yes, yes I did.

Is it kind of gross to immediately compare this to Wonder Woman (2017)? Reductive, possibly, but impossible to completely avoid while the road to more representation is paved with MRA’s who are insistent on burning everything to the ground. Is it apostasy to say that I prefer Captain Marvel? Wonder Woman is a fine film—and in fact the only film of the struggling DCEU to not be overwhelmed by any particularly glaring flaws—but is ultimately at it is core Thor meets Captain America but with a lady.

Marvel, however feels different. For one thing, there is no interest in any degree of a romantic subplot anywhere in the film. Admittedly, that could be in some small part because the first forty-five minutes are a little weighed down by expositioning a heavy science-fantasy framework of which general audiences likely have no awareness. No time for love here, Dr. Jones. And yet, omitting that part of the story feels refreshing.

Carol Danvers (Brie) isn’t closed off or inhuman in the pursuit of this greater ideal, either. She has tremendous affection for her friends (even in cases where she’s spent over half a decade not remembering them), is the funniest character in the film that isn’t a cat, and She’s a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and only serves to increase my anticipation of the upcoming Avengers Endgame. What’s more? I think the true measure of a superhero film featuring a character that might not be in the cultural zeitgeist is that I want to read more of the world the moment the movie is over. And in the day since I’ve seen the film, I keep eyeing the comixology collection of Captain Marvel stories. So, well done, movie. Well done.

One more note: the work to make Samuel L. Jackson and to a lesser extent, Clark Gregg, twenty-five years younger has finally come of age. Or, at the very least, it’s evolved by quantum leaps beyond the lurching, halting, unfathomable creations that first stepped out of a car in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). With that being said, my common refrain about the future of superhero films may need a slight revision. I’ve been saying for years that the best idea no one is working on is a Batman Beyond film featuring Michael Keaton as old Bruce Wayne. Now that we have the technology to rebuild him, let’s skip the compromise and just make the Batman 3 that we always deserved and give us prime 90s Keaton. We have the means; we need only find the will now.