The new James Bond flick No Time to Die takes place amid the prospect of a worldwide pandemic unleashed from a laboratory where scientists are specifically trying to engineer insanely dangerous biological weapons, but that’s not the only reason I found the movie a bit uncomfortable. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, who is best known for season 1 of True Detective, Bond 25 is the least fun and most somber excursion in the entire Bond series, as well as being by far the longest 007 movie. Two hours and 43 minutes? Really?
Fukunaga, who has indicated that he finds the Bond character highly problematic and is essentially an art-house director, was an odd choice to take over the saga, which is heavy on drama and pretty much free of the cheesy, campy stuff that people tend to love most. Despite the movie’s huge budget, the action scenes are nothing special, and he mainly survives on luck and/or the incompetence of the various hired assassins chasing him.
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