It’s been a long wait but yesterday saw the first full teaser trailer for No Time To Die arrive. And while we are as big James Bond fans were excited to see it, we just can’t help but feel a little concerned about the movie for three big reasons.
1. No Time To Die’s trailer teases plot points we’ve already seen in Casino Royale and Skyfall
The trailer opened with Madeleine Swann having a secret that angers Bond.
Remember when this happened in Casino Royale with Vesper Lynd?
After some happy couple time together – there seems to be a bit of that in the No Time To Die trailer too – Bond finds out the truth about Vesper’s dark connection to Quantum/Spectre. Been there, done that.
While another scene we’ve seen before is Bond interrogating Blofeld at MI6 in a sci-fi cage, just like Silva in Skyfall.
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If anything, this incarnation’s movies are five episodes of a miniseries, but annoyingly one that’s been released over a period of 14 years.
Of course, the Marvel movies do this but they’re released much more closely to each other so audiences can keep up and crucially have an emotional investment.
For all we know No Time To Die will have irritating moments of exposition to be like: “Remember that moment from Casino Royale in 2006, that’s relevant to this scene.”
With five years between Spectre and No Time To Die, perhaps Craig should have hung up his tuxedo at the end of the last film? Certainly, it ended in a way the looked like that was an option for him.
3. We’re getting Die Another Day vibes with Safin’s hint at the fantastical
Ever heard of the Bond curse? There’s this theory that every James Bond actor’s final movie in the role is their worst, campest and cheesiest.
Just look at Pierce Brosnan’s Die Another Day – you cannot un-see that invisible car. But then four years later Casino Royale was a breath of fresh air, with a more grounded and real-world take on the spy.
And yet No Time To Die’s trailer appears to be teasing fantastical elements again, with Malek’s Safin “playing God”. Something to do with his skills living on beyond him. Are we talking immortality or prolonged life here?
Going this route would not be true to the world Casino Royale set up and we’ve already felt those confused tones in Spectre. We love Roger Moore Bond, but that world doesn’t and shouldn’t fit into Craig’s universe.
No Time To Die is released in UK cinemas on April 2, 2020.