It’s Just a Number | No Time to Die (2021) 4K Ultra HD

Does everything need to be a multiverse now, even James Bond? Given that the Bond movies are not strictly science fiction (a lot of crazy gadgets and the ending of Moonraker excepted, of course), I wouldn’t normally think of the franchise falling into the multiverse trope that has taken over so much of popular culture these days. However, as Daniel Craig’s tenure in the role drew to a close with No Time to Die in 2021, I felt more strongly than ever that his films existed separately from the 20 that came before him, as if in a parallel or pocket universe outside the series’ normal continuity.

I say this fully realizing that, until Craig, James Bond movies never had much sense of continuity, even within the run of any particular actor. Nonetheless, one could almost be convinced that, after applying a little movie logic and a healthy dose of suspension-of-disbelief, the James Bond in Die Another Day was supposed to be the same man from Dr. No, somehow aging at a slower rate than the world around him. Casino Royale may have changed that in 2006, in what appeared to be a full reboot, starting the character over from his first recruitment into Britain’s Double-0 program. Yet even there, Judi Dench continued to play the role of Bond’s superior, M, maintaining some tenuous connection to the Pierce Brosnan years.

Unlike any of his predecessors, Daniel Craig’s movies were tightly linked to one another in sequence, progressing the character on an arc from rookie agent to experienced spy, to a veteran in retirement. Not to spoil too much, but that story had a clear beginning, middle and, with No Time to Die, an ending. Diamonds may be forever, but Craig’s James Bond is not. Unlike Sean Connery, Craig will not reprise the role years later when producers throw piles of cash at him. His duty is done. That timeline is closed but, as anyone who stayed all the way through the credits will note, the franchise itself is not. JAMES BOND WILL RETURN. Just not this one. Maybe one in another universe.

No Time to Die (2021) - Ralph Fiennes & Daniel Craig
Title:No Time to Die
Year of Release: 2021
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Watched On: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Also Available On: Blu-ray
Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

Supporting this crazy theory, Craig’s subsequent films after Casino Royale felt less like a reboot of the franchise than a remake of it, perhaps most noticeably with the introduction of Christoph Waltz in Spectre, playing a new version of familiar villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Beyond that character and the title organization itself, the Spectre movie overflowed with heavy-handed fan-service references to prior Bond storylines, as if nudging viewers with a wink, saying, “Hey, remember this thing? Yeah, we’re doing it again.”

That issue is pushed to a further extent in No Time to Die, a movie so infatuated with the 1969 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service that it repeatedly and shamelessly lifts dialogue, music cues, and even the entire end credits song. Some fans ate this up, as they were meant to. Others found it obnoxious.

Mulling this over, it strikes me that the title No Time to Die means essentially the same thing as Die Another Day. I doubt that was intentional, but I do find it emblematic of the problem that, in my opinion, both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig (much like Sean Connery and Roger Moore before them) went out on their weakest notes. I’m sure not all fans will agree with me on that.

The story here opens with Bond retired from Her Majesty’s government (Elizabeth II wouldn’t pass until the following year), living in seeming contentment with now-wife Madeleine (Léa Seydoux), a character carried over from the last movie. Despite that marriage, Bond still grieves and pines for Vesper Lynd, the one true love of his life. By visiting Vesper’s grave, he hopes to finally bring resolution to their relationship and let her go so that he can move on with his new life. Naturally, any semblance of peace he may feel gets interrupted by an unprovoked attack orchestrated by Blofeld, currently imprisoned but pulling his best Hannibal Lecter to stay active and make a nuisance of himself.

No Time to Die (2021) - Christoph Waltz

Skipping ahead in the plot recap here, Blofeld is then supplanted by an even bigger villain with burn scars all over his face and the terribly subtle name Lucifer Satan… oh, I’m sorry, Lyutsifer Safin. My mistake. Satan/Safin is played by Oscar winner Rami Malek in a very calm, understated performance that belies his megalomaniacal plan to kill everyone on Earth except himself and a small cadre of followers (a scheme borrowed from Drax in Moonraker).

Bond, having learned that his number was assigned to a new Agent 007 (Lashana Lynch), returns to duty anyway in order to foil the evil mastermind. Obviously, only James Bond is capable of single-handedly saving the world, not some woman who may look competent but definitely needs to step aside and let a real man do her job for her.

To enact his dreams of genocide, Safin uses what appears at first to be a virus, but is later revealed to be nanobot technology that can selectively target the DNA of chosen victims and their families. As far-fetched as this may sound, the Bond franchise has certainly seen its share of more outlandish plotlines. However, when it comes down to the details, this one truly doesn’t make any sense at all. Safin steals only a small vial of nanobots, not nearly enough to kill off the entire world population. Later, we find him on an island said to be covered in poisonous plants, where he has an army of workers in his secret underground lair harvesting… nanobots? What? Are these nanobots or is it a poison? How do you grow nanobots on a farm? If these things are supposed to have some connection, it’s never explained, not clearly anyway.

Even more ridiculous, Q (Ben Whishaw) tells Bond that once he gets the nanobots on him (which of course happens), they can never be removed and will never leave his system. Even though his own DNA isn’t targeted, Bond will be infected forever and will unavoidably kill important people he might like to get close to again. Mind you, Bond is told this while he’s literally wearing an EMP device in his wristwatch that he has to set off inches from his face to defeat a henchman. Just as you start to question why the EMP wouldn’t fry all the nanobots and immediately solve his problems, Bond continues to speak to Q, via a comms earpiece he’s wearing that magically wasn’t affected by the electronic pulse. Yeesh…

No Time to Die (2021) - Rami Malek

I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t acknowledge how many times other Bond movies have suffered from dumb plots and ludicrous pseudoscience technology (Oh, hi there, invisible car!), especially those written by the longtime team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who’ve been with the series since The World Is Not Enough. Their script for this one was supposedly given a polish by actress and Killing Eve writer/producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Not to stereotype, but I assume Waller-Bridge’s work was mostly to flesh out the story’s character development and emotional components. I say that not because she’s a woman, but because I’d like to think she’d come up with something better than the nanobot/poison/virus thing, much less the way the last act lapses into a big child-in-danger cliché.

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga (likely best known for helming the terrific first season of HBO’s True Detective) also has a credit on the screenplay. For his part, the film is very stylishly directed and moves quickly despite its excessive 2.75-hour runtime. The action scenes are well-staged (no incomprehensible shaky-cam crap here like Quantum of Solace), though far too many of them are reliant on cars crashing and flipping through the air. Seriously, I swear that somewhere around 45 cars flip through the air when chasing Bond at various times.

Regardless of whom was responsible for what, the sillier aspects of the film clash badly with the persistently dour and bleak tone that has been a hallmark of Daniel Craig’s time in the role. Although not the actor’s fault, all the Bond movies starring Craig have been heavily weighed down by a desire to be taken seriously, as complex psychological studies of a man who routinely runs through exploding buildings and drives a car with machine guns behind the headlights (which he somehow still has after leaving his job, like it was gifted to him as a retirement present or something).

As much as I appreciate the attempt to offer more depth to a character that has often been portrayed as shallow and flippant in the past, surely some better balance could be struck than this. At the very least, can we change things up every couple movies and lay off the grimdark stuff for a while? James Bond is supposed to be fun. Hopefully the next one, whichever universe he may come from, will remember that.

No Time to Die (2021) - Léa Seydoux

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Arriving right in the middle of the COVID pandemic, No Time to Die had a successful but brief theatrical run in October 2021, after which it hit home video quickly in December of that year, released by Universal as distributor for MGM. I purchased the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray edition in a SteelBook case that, as I recall, was exclusive to the Best Buy retail chain.

All home video copies, including Blu-ray and 4K, maintain a constant 2.39:1 aspect ratio as the movie played in the majority of theaters worldwide, and are not burdened by any IMAX variable ratio nonsense. This will no doubt upset some viewers, but none of them have IMAX theaters in their homes, and I’m not in the mood to have that argument again. I didn’t see the movie in an IMAX theater, but from what I’ve been told, even the “IMAX” scenes only expanded to the taller IMAX height for select shots, while all shots with dialogue were 2.39:1 and the scenes flitted back and forth between the two ratios.

The movie also played in some theaters with a 3D conversion that has never been released on physical media. As far as I can tell, the 3D version has only ever been made available for purchase exclusively on Apple Vision Pro VR headsets, not that anyone would care about that.

Reading up on it, I’m surprised to learn that No Time to Die was primarily photographed on film (including some scenes on IMAX film). The entire movie, start to finish, IMAX footage included, has a very digital look to it, lacking much sense of film texture. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. It’s a well-shot and visually-striking movie. I just, personally, don’t understand the point of shooting something on film these days if you don’t want it to look like film. In terms of the Bond franchise, this entry more strongly resembles Skyfall (shot entirely digitally) than Casino Royale or Quantum or Solace, much less Spectre (which was shot in a highly stylized manner to avoid looking digital at all).

That said, the production was finished on a native 4K Digital Intermediate and the resulting 4K video transfer is terrific in most respects. The image is very sharp and detailed. It has rich colors and contrast, and a nice application of HDR. Comparing the two discs in the case, the 4K has appreciably better highlights and shadow detail than the regular Blu-ray. Given how many scenes in the movie take place in dark environments, that’s a critical improvement. .

Looking closely, some shots (not all, but quite a few) show thin edge halos around people and objects in the frame. I can’t decide if I think this is due to artificial sharpening, or was just some artifact of the original DI. The issue is mostly subtle and rarely noticeable enough to be distracting, but if you actively look for it, you should be able to spot it.

No Time to Die (2021) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray SteelBook

I have very conflicted feelings about the Dolby Atmos soundtrack. On a first listen, I was really impressed by the dynamic range and immersiveness of the mix. During action scenes especially, sounds pan around the room in an enveloping manner. Bass may emphasize loudness more than it does true depth, but it’s used frequently and to good effect. I was all set to give this track my highest marks for sound quality, and in fact I may do so anyway for all the qualities I’ve just described.

So, what’s the problem? After watching, I went down something of a rabbit hole testing the audio. As a 7.1 sound mix, the track is pretty incredible. However, as Dolby Atmos, it almost never uses height speakers. Without exaggeration, those speakers are dead silent for more than 99% of the movie. I’d be very surprised if the sum total of height layer activity in this nearly three-hour movie adds up to more than 30 seconds.

For example, during the big nightclub set-piece in Cuba, bad guys shoot at Bond from every direction, including many from a balcony shooting down at him. That scene has precisely one second of sound in the height speakers, when Lashana Lynch’s character smashes through a window in the ceiling. All other sounds, including the glass and debris falling with her, come from the base-level speakers below.

It’s not particularly unusual for Atmos soundtracks to have limited use of discrete sound effects in the height layer. Nevertheless, even most of those tracks will have subtle but consistent ambient noises and music reverb in the heights to help create the illusion of a bubble of sound around you. Not this one. Those speakers are barely ever used.

If anything, what this proves is that a standard 5.1 or 7.1 soundtrack can really envelop you from all sides, and even convince you that you’re hearing sounds from above by imaging them over your head without using height speakers at all. That’s very impressive, though perhaps also rather depressing for those of us who’ve invested a lot of money into putting speakers on our ceilings.

For bonus materials, the UHD offers four promotional featurettes of between 6 to 11 minutes each, plus a 46-minute documentary called Being James Bond about Daniel Craig playing the role. I didn’t watch any of them and have no plans to, sorry. In a weird divergence from the way these things are usually handled, the extras only appear on the 4K UHD disc with none on the regular Blu-ray.

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Note: Screenshots on this page were taken from the Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.

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