Review Detail

No Time To Die is a decent thriller, but a pretty lacking Bond film for several obvious reasons. This edit seeks to excise some of the original’s more egregious faux pas, with considerable success.

The two most obvious changes are to the opening and the ending. Using a gun barrel opening that contains blood looks like a small change on paper, but instantly conjures the Bond feel that the artsy fartsy original lacked. So too does the complete re-editing of the pre-credits sequence to a far more traditional action scene, with the moving of the overlong and poorly placed flashback sequence to later in the film lending it a more logical context.

The original ending is indicative of the studio and directors they’re hiring having an abject distaste for the Bond franchise and what it stands for, but the edits here again improve this immensely. Although the edits are somewhat more visible than they are in the opening sequence, the original footage is nevertheless used creatively to effectively construct a far superior ending that’s more befitting of the franchise.

The final package feels considerably more like a traditional Bond film, although there are flaws that can’t be fixed such as the weakness of the villain, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s drum-banging handprints all over the script or the sight of Daniel Craig stomping around with the suaveness of Mr Potato Head.