“No Time To Die” premiered on Oct. 8 with Daniel Craig starring one last time as James Bond. Craig starred in a total of 5 Bond movies. 

The movie follows Bond as he leaves active service, but his peaceful retirement life quickly escalates when a former CIA agent askes Bond for help on a mission. He hesitantly agrees and follows the confusing trail of villain, Lyutsifer Safin, who possesses a dangerous technology that could kill millions. 

The movie begins with capitaving fight scenes, sultry romance and enthralling suspense. As this was my first encounter with the Bond series, I had high expectations and looked forward to fully immersing myself in the hype. 

The action scenes are orchestrated well throughout the film with herds of people attempting to fight and kill Bond, and intense explosions; the scenes had the audience clutching their popcorn with anticipation.

 The film’s best action scene occurs when Bond swings on a rope across a large body of water. The bird’s eye view camera angle reveals the danger of Bond’s situation: Any small break on the rope would result in death.

Bond also faces many challenges throughout the movie, narrowly escaping death during each encounter. The scene where he travels to Safin’s headquarters on Faroe Islands to dismantle the complicated and deadly system is filled with intriguing chaos, mystery and betrayal. 

There are many layers to Safin’s lair with workers, security guards and surveillance cameras proving to be the main obstacles. The uncertainty of the plot held viewers throughout. 

 I expected the movie to continue this way for the rest of the film; at one point, however, the movie becomes difficult to follow.  

For instance, the jump shots made the backstory between Bond’s girlfriend, Dr. Madeleine Swann and the villain, Lyutsifer Safin, hard to understand.  

Moreover, the characters’ relationships made the plot convoluted for first-time watchers. The romance and history between Swann and Bond can be traced back many years, which was difficult to comprehend without the knowledge of previous movies, and the plotpoint about who the father of Swann’s daughter was didn’t add compelling information to the narrative of the movie. 

However, the movie ends on a surprising note (enough said). The film’s intense action, development of the characters and constant plot twists surpassed my expectations. I would give this movie 4 out of 5 Falcons.