Watching all the Daniel Craig films back to back, you realize that with each successive installment, it strays farther and farther from the tried and true joyous formula of Bond films. By the time we reach the 2021 outing, that formula is all but completely lost.
The essential problem of No Time To Die is that for the first time the series 60 year history, this film tries to be some kind of serious drama - and it of course doesn't work. It comes off as pretentious. This isn't what audiences want from a Bond film - they want the traditional formula.
Yes films like The Man With Golden Gun, Moonraker and Die Another Day were stupid - but they never took themselves too seriously. Bond films always have this spirit of fun and lightheartedness to them. No Time To Die is so dark and melodramatic - whatever happened to the good old days of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace?!....
Daniel Craig's Bond archetype becomes weaker and weaker with each film. Unlike previous iterations of the character over the decades, Craig's character is always too impulsive, lacking clarity, and questionable mental stability since 2006. By this film he is just this mopey angry fool - and needy and obsessed with this woman.
All that said, it is still a relatively entertaining romp with nothing really insulting to long time fans of the series. But Bond as this serious melodrama just doesn't work. They're not supposed to be serious films.
