007 - Sem Tempo para Morrer

O final digno de uma pentalogia em que James Bond é credível não só como herói de ação que salva o mundo, mas também como um homem melancólico, atormentado e vulnerável que anseia por uma proximidade amorosa e um ambiente estável. Fukunaga está seguro nas cenas de ação e na ênfase na linha de história da relação melodramática, na qual as qualidades de atuação de Daniel Craig estão em plena exibição. Contudo, apesar de um bem-sucedido mergulho psicológico íntimo no interior do herói, esta intimidade subtil não causa uma impressão tão emocional e satisfatória como deveria, devido à ligeira ingenuidade do argumento e à ocasional inutilidade do diálogo. Simplesmente dececionante é o carácter pouco interessante do vilão principal, à cuja personalidade complicada o filme dá pouca atenção em comparação com o protagonista, tornando-o apenas um simples esqueleto não muito interessante e incompreensivelmente agindo nos planos do diabo. Pelo contrário, é ótima a agente interpretada por Ana de Armas, que aparece apenas brevemente, mas mereceria um filme inteiro. Há uma intenção óbvia de filmar o final da saga Bond com tudo o que lhe acompanha, pelo que trademarks familiares são novamente revitalizados, mas quando Bond diz linhas sarcasticamente humorísticas enquanto destrói os seus inimigos, elimina de forma contraditória a tentativa de tornar o seu personagem mais sensível e civilizado. O estilo geral do filme não se afasta particularmente do padrão dos episódios anteriores da série de Craig, no entanto, aos seus criadores não faltou a coragem de inventar um ou dois elementos extra que perturbam significativamente a norma do Bond e elevam a experiência de ver 007 - Sem Tempo para Morrer à categoria de inesquecível, apesar das suas poucas imperfeições. (30/09/2021)

Desta vez, o grupo de Broccoli brincou decentemente com os nossos sentimentos. E Craig experimentou a mais ampla variedade de movimentos interiores e expressões faciais como Bond, não só nas suas cinco aparições na franquia, mas de todos os Bond. Sendo eu um espetador emocional, isso conquistou-me totalmente. Um relacionamento bem aprofundado com Léa Seydoux. Mas, e a lógica insuficiente da motivação e do comportamento do vilão principal (Malek) e outras coisas pouco pensadas? É assim tão difícil aperfeiçoar o argumento de um muito esperado megablockbuster mundial também a este respeito? De qualquer maneira, ver de novo 007 Spectre um dia antes foi recompensador, pois 007 - Sem Tempo para Morrer segue-o diretamente. Zimmer é excelente nas cenas de suspense, especialmente ao encontrar Blofeld (Waltz). (30/09/2021)

After the screening, I gave it full stars and contentedly enjoyed the reverberations of an experience overflowing with testosterone and adrenaline, only to begin to slightly waver the next day in favor of the "objective findings" that it had a rather futile villain and an often overly determined effort to tighten all the storylines from previous stints. But this is love, pure and sincere. Spectre could have been a full-on epilogue, and thankfully, it’s not. Daniel Craig came for a complex farewell in No Time to Die, brimming with big emotions that jostle for a place in the audience's good graces with an absolutely archetypal old-school Bond film, where the aforementioned villain with totally "full-retard" motivations fills his role to a tee and Q serves up the toys he mocked less than a decade earlier. Fukunaga paces it at an incredible rhythm (where is the much-mentioned mid-film tempo drop?) and keeps everything running in a completely polished and compact whole, where there is no room for peaks and valleys, but rather a thoughtful interplay of emotional outpourings and fantastic action. T. C. may be hanging under a helicopter and my jaw is dropping, but when a sweat and blood-soaked Craig climbs a staircase in one camera take, accompanied by Zimmer's thunderous music, I still know which agent with permission to replace a bulldozer will always be the most popular with me. (26/10/2021)

A very dignified farewell. Daniel Craig clearly enjoys the whole thing much more than in Spectre, and Cary Joji Fukunaga proves to be the perfect man to direct. No Time to Die has a great opening and an excellent ending, and it plods a bit in between, but not to the point where it hurts. Fukunaga is unlucky to have been given the task of retelling the story that was so poorly picked up by Sam Mendes in Spectre, and it was probably no fun to make sense of it all and milk some emotion out of this latest Bond flick. Fortunately, Fukunaga manages it quite well, despite Léa Seydoux being an extremely uninteresting actress and playing probably the most boring Bondgirl ever. Unfortunately, Fukunaga couldn't get rid of her, so I take it he did what he could. He's much better in scenes where he can invent new things and not work with what's left. The action is good, imaginative and different every time. And the whole No Time to Die changes its style unexpectedly and often, so that at times it's reminiscent of Craig's Bond films, at other times it makes you think of the days when Roger Moore or Sean Connery were Agent 007, and in some scenes the film can be surprisingly gritty and uncompromising. The whole thing could have been shorter, had a more prominent villain, and the middle part does drag a bit at times, but overall it's a film that's definitely worth seeing. And Craig can be happy with how he parted with his license to kill. (29/09/2021)

At this point, Bond would just like to be James (double-o seven can no longer be James due to a reason that will cause the eyes of half of FilmBooster users to start twitching). But in order for anyone to see him that way, he will have to give up his Hemingway-esque fishing in the Caribbean and return to the job that has cost him everyone he loved in the past. No Time to Die is most satisfying as a drama about a man making up for lost years and seeking mutuality. Bond tries out new roles, which gives Craig the opportunity to deliver a more nuanced acting performance. For the intensity of the emotions that he manages to arouse on a few occasion, it wouldn’t even matter that, due to its inclination toward melodrama, the film comes across as rather sedate in comparison to the excellent and unpredictable Spectre. Except, at the same time, the filmmakers responded to the dismantling of the Bond universe in the previous instalment by trying to put Bond back together again – offering everything anyone has ever loved about the character and the franchise – which in many respects goes against the effort to create an entirely intimate and moving portrait of a tormented hero. In order for us to find out how Bond resolves his dilemma, we have to endure yet more references to the events and locations of old Bond films, embarrassing characterisations, cheesy one-liners following the elimination of bad guys, and lengthy and unimaginative action scenes, which are at times reminiscent of The Fast and the Furious in their bombast, and a bland villain whose blather about his parents is only slightly more tolerable than his blather about the plants that he grew in his garden. In the end, the thing most torn here is not Bond, but the film itself, as it simultaneously runs in two different directions. Of all the Bond films starring Daniel Craig, I am least inclined to watch this embarrassing mishmash a second time. (29/09/2021)