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It is with a heavy heart that I report I did not love No Time to Die, despite my long and abiding love affair with James Bond. Your own mileage may vary—many critics appear to be in ecstasies over the film. It is worth seeing if you like Bond or big movies, and it is technically well-crafted. But I left the screening feeling emotionally and physically drained, deflated from an experience that began with both promise and excitement.

As I wandered the streets of New York City following No Time to Die’s gargantuan 2 hour 43 minute runtime, I found it difficult to parse my thoughts about the film. There are good movies and there are bad movies, and there are many, many shades of grey in between shaped by personal preferences, experiences, and expectations. I tried to keep my own expectations for Daniel Craig’s final turn as Bond from ballooning; I told myself I would be happy merely to see the movie on the big screen after more than a year of pandemic delays.

Yet happiness is a crucial element missing from No Time to Die, as is, damningly, any real element of fun or even the relief of mindless escapism. It is not a bad movie, yet I emerged numb.

The plot of No Time to Die is both overstuffed and thinly drawn. In a weird bit of prescience for a script written long before the pandemic, at its center is a MacGuffin about a deadly biological force that infects and kills. In this way it has a sort of timeliness, but even that aspect is unintentional. Far more time is spent racing cars across picturesque roads or firing shot after shot at anonymous henchmen than explaining the bioweapon or why the bad guy, Rami Malek’s Lyutsifer Safin, wants to use it.

Malek is criminally underused, and the character is so absurd that he feels like a parody of what a Bond villain should be. Though he speaks in a slow and ponderous whisper, I often found his dialogue incomprehensible, and so Safin remained only a sort of silly background menace. He has an elaborate “poison garden” in his secret island lair, which is kind of cool but also baffling. His ultimate plan and reasons for planning are preposterously unclear.

Bond deserved a far better adversary for his last outing. Everything deserved to be better here. It’s said that Bond is only as good as his villain, and if that’s a metric by which to judge No Time to Die, the whole film is as navel-gazing and unmotivated.

It didn’t have to be this way. The movie starts with astonishing promise, with what The AV Club terms “a misleadingly superb opening suspense sequence.” In those first few minutes, we see hints of what made No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s first season of True Detective so eerily excellent. We learn what connects Malek’s Safin and a younger version of Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann, Bond’s psychiatrist love interest from Spectre. An intriguing and psychologically complex film is suggested by this open that then never materializes.

Fukunaga and his co-screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (famously brought in to punch up the script and add a woman’s perspective) cannot be accused of not giving us the Bond goods. Everything we’ve come to expect from a Bond movie is here: audacious car and motorcycle chases, swinging from bridges, international escapades, dry one-liners, spy gadgets, constant explosions, snazzily tailored suits, beautiful women, high stakes, martinis shaken not stirred.

Craig’s grizzled Bond does what he can and he does it well, yet here Bond is lacking the viscerally crushing world-weariness that has marked his run and differentiated his Bond from the Bonds that came before. Both Craig and Bond appear to be going through the motions. When it comes time for him to rejoin the fray after several movies spent explaining how his mind and body are falling apart, he does so with a shrug. No Time to Die is ostensibly about Bond coming out of retirement to stop a bad guy bent on destruction for *checks notes* reasons, and learning the importance of leaving behind a lasting legacy or something, but thematically, the movie is empty.

No Time to Die’s Bond still grimaces and expects betrayal, but like the action sequences, so much seems to be done by rote. It’s as though the talented creative team went through itemized Bond set pieces on a checklist one by one. They are crafted with workmanlike efficiency, but never really dazzle. It’s a Potemkin village of the Bond universe.

A huge part of the problem here is that so much of the plot and the decisions made hinge on Bond’s relationship with Swann, whom we’re meant to see as a great and worthy love worth enduring anything for. And yet the ghost of Eva Green’s spectacular Vesper Lynd still haunts from her time with Bond in Casino Royale more than fifteen years ago. Vesper remains so much a part of Bond’s character composite that he begins this film with a pilgrimage to her tomb.

“I mean, the Eva Green of it all,” said my colleague Chelsea Steiner. “No one can top her.”

By contrast, it’s hard to see why we, the audience, as well as James Bond, should be swooning over the dour Madeleine Swann. It’s not Seydoux’s fault; the character is underwritten and also made to take a “damsel in distress” role here, wearing tottering heels as she runs for her life. Unfortunately, while they are both very pretty to look at, Seydoux and Craig have the combustible chemistry of wet sand when they’re together. This renders the relationship even more unconvincing and unable to serve as the emotional lynchpin the movie demands that it be.

A further twist at around the third-act mark changes everything, and not for the better. For me, it was the worst possible choice the moviemakers could have made, taking what we love about Bond and giving him the most generic of action movie hero motivations. It will surely divide audiences, and I would like to be on the record as thinking the entirety of No Time to Die’s endgame is folly.

Now that I’ve been a resounding Negative Nancy, what did I actually enjoy about the film? Well, the first half is pretty spry, providing some of the edge-of-your-seat excitement as to what will happen next, and flipping a lot of cars.

The cast, as usual, is excellent, including some new players. There’s a particularly strong showing from Craig’s Knives Out costar Ana de Armas as Paloma, an agent Bond meets in Cuba who claims she’s only had three weeks of training but can do more in barely-there ballgown than most of us can imagine in a lifetime of physical activity. De Armas is present as a new “Bond woman” for all of fifteen minutes, but she’s having so much fun, and has such sparkling chemistry with Craig, that we can only dream of a No Time to Die that might have let Paloma move into a lead role.

Also having fun is Jeffrey Wright as returning CIA agent Felix Leiter. Wright is good in everything and looks like he’s enjoying his job, but anyone who hasn’t seen prior Bond movies will miss the emotional resonance of his role. The same goes for a return of Christoph Waltz’s evil Blofeld, whom we meet in a prison so high-security it makes Hannibal Lecter’s confinement seem like a luxury hotel—but then he is left alone with Bond, the plexiglass between them removed. It’s sloppy plotting like this that makes it clear No Time to Die wants to wrap up all of Bond’s loose threads, whether or not they can be tied neatly.

There was much buzz around Lashana Lynch as “the new 007,” an MI-6 agent given Bond’s designation after he fell off the grid. Like de Armas, Lynch is fantastic with what she’s given, crackling beside Craig as she plays the new guard to his old. Perhaps inevitably, she ends up as his back-up, as this is Craig’s swan song, but Lynch is electric enough that we’re ready for her spin-off. Hopefully co-starring Paloma. As her girlfriend. A girl can dream.

Speaking of LGBTQIA+ representation, we do get a blink-and-you-miss-it reference in regards to Ben Whishaw’s Q. There’s a scene where Bond and Moneypenny (the wonderful Naomie Harris, wasted) head to Q’s apartment to seek his assistance. They find MI-6’s quartermaster in the middle of cooking a romantic dinner. The annoyed Q is loath to help them because, as he says, suggesting an imminent date, “He’ll be here in twenty minutes.” This offhand nod to Q’s sexuality is nice to hear, and neither of his coworkers miss a beat, suggesting they’re already well enough aware and that we’re all living in the twenty-first century.

While I was pleased to witness this line, and happy for the fans who have “headcanoned” Q as queer since his first eccentric sweater-wearing appearance in 2012’s Skyfall, it didn’t feel like enough.

For what seems like the seventieth time, queer people are finally acknowledged to exist in the world of a major franchise, but only referentially. It’s all tell, no show. Once more we have a queer character confirmed thus by a throwaway, easily excised line half the audience will miss and the other half may never hear, depending on their market.

To quote our Chelsea Steiner again: “If they just had a cute guy walk in with a bottle of wine like ‘Hi?’ it would have been delightful.” Why is this so hard? I’m also curious as to how the line came about. Was it advocated for by Whishaw, who is openly gay and recently said he’d love to see the next Bond be played by a gay actor? Was it a Waller-Bridge addition, since she was seemingly hired to bring Bond up to date? There are a few scenes of levity and snappy humor that seem like classic Waller-Bridge, but unless an annotated script is released, we may never know where exactly her fingerprints are.

Ultimately, one of the movie’s most unforgivable crimes is not making more use of such a strong ensemble. How do you not let Oscar and Emmy-award winner Rami Malek shine as a villain? How do you not give Harris and Whishaw, who have been at this for a decade, more to do? How do you render Ralph Fiennes’ M bland and forgettable and only capable of making us remember how much we miss Judi Dench?

How do you build to a point that is meant to tug relentlessly on the heartstrings, and yet all I have written in my notebook is, “Hmm,” followed by “Why???” underlined three times, followed again by “Hmm.”

But Kaila, you say, why are you even expecting coherence from a James Bond movie? Don’t you remember when the Quantum of Solace villain wanted to steal Bolivia’s water supply? Who really understands or cares about what is going on with Spectre? Isn’t this ultimately about a man who can swing from bridges and somehow walk away? ‘Tis true, my friends, ’tis true. The problem is that this is the last movie where this particular Bond gets to swing from bridges and look fabulous doing it. I was lying to myself about my lack of expectations. I expected more.

And like Daniel Craig and his Bond, I am tired and worn down by the past. Perhaps experiencing all that I have in between when No Time to Die was meant to bow in April 2020 and now has turned me more bitter and cynical than I should be. Maybe I would have liked this film and been truly moved once. Alas, those days are gone. Now it is time for a nap.

(images: MGM)

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It's time for some action!  Welcome to the latest installment of Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review show, broadcasting this Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on BTalk 100.   Your "diabolical" AFROnerdist hosts will be addressing the following (mid) weekly issues: apparently as a preemptive measure, Marvel/Disney is suing the heirs of some of your favorite comic creators to maintain the rights to certain Avengers characters coming up on copyright termination;  and speaking of Disney....plus, that is-we give our impressions of the eighth episode of the streaming service's wildly popular What...If? series; as the oft-preempted Marvel film, Venom sequel gets closer to its release date (Oct. 1, 2021), theories are popping up that the story may focus on a "love affair" between the Eddie Brock character and his Alien parasite/symbiote.....ok..let's talk about it;  

Dburt, admittedly, will revisit an iconic movie scene that he deems as cool, even if the character is an antagonist or straightforward villain. Case in point, legendary actor, Denzel Washington's controversial (and Oscar Award-winning) portrayal of a corrupt undercover detective.  But the question remains, can Black villains be explored without fear of stereotyping:

J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 sci-fi series returns (to the CW network) this time but is it a sequel or a reboot? Is the Netflix Squid Game the most violent series to hit the streaming platform?; How did Dburt (per usual) miss the original Cowboy Bebop anime series?  And how faithful can the Netflix live-action translation be to the original?

And lastly, if time permits, perhaps we will address the inane-notable actor, Will Smith's GQ magazine interview in which he discloses what many had already deduced years ago....he's purportedly in an open marriage and the dustup between Whoopi Goldberg and Bill Maher concerning the Black National Anthem being played before NFL games.  Maher doubles down on his belief that America should not revert to racial separatism.         

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF

Call us LIVE at 508-645-0100. AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!! 

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As astronomers continue to scan the Milky Way for answers to cosmic questions, the galaxy’s strangeness continues to unfold. Our home galaxy, for example, hosts everything from “yellow ball” star clusters to “snow clouds” consisting of oxygen. Now, new research reveals a giant void or “cavity” in the Milky Way. And it may be the gaping result of ancient stars exploding ten million years ago.

 Alyssa Goodman/Center for Astrophysics

SYFY WIRE reported on the recently announced Milky Way void. Although it may evoke the idea of a black hole, this cavity is actually a sphere (or “bubble”) of empty space. The cavity, as the astronomers outlined in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, spans approximately 500 light-years across. And molecular clouds—which provide the material for nascent star formation—surround the region.

“Hundreds of stars are forming or exist already at the surface of this giant bubble,” Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics and study lead, said in a press release. “We have two theories—either one supernova went off at the core of this bubble and pushed gas outward forming what we now call the ‘Perseus-Taurus Supershell,’ or a series of supernovae occurring over millions of years created it over time,” Bialy added.

Bialy and his colleagues were able to spot the space void thanks to their analyzing a 3D map of the Supershell. Researchers made the map using a space-based observatory. It represents the first instance of a map of this kind in three dimensions. In the video above, we get a look at the 3D map of the Supershell and its molecular clouds. This video also demonstrates how people can use their phones to look at an augmented-reality version of the Supershell. (You can grab the QR codes for that here.)

“There are many different theories for how gas rearranges itself to form stars,” Catherine Zucker, the lead creator of the 3D map, said in the press release. “Astronomers have tested these theoretical ideas using simulations in the past, but this is the first time we can use real—not simulated—3D views to compare theory to observation, and evaluate which theories work best.”

Jasen Lux Chambers / Center for Astrophysics

The findings ultimately suggest that the molecular clouds that make up the Perseus-Taurus Supershell are not independent. On the contrary, a single shockwave from a supernova—i.e. an exploding star—likely formed both together. “This demonstrates that when a star dies, its supernova generates a chain of events that may ultimately lead to the birth of new stars,” Bialy added. Which, again, is just one of the many cosmic events occurring throughout the Milky Way all the time.

The post Giant Milky Way Void Could Be Result of Ancient Supernovae appeared first on Nerdist.

There are spoilers. And then there are spoilers, the kind that should come with literal sirens to warning people. Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s post-credits scene definitely falls into the latter category. For a massively entertaining movie that never once takes itself seriously, it ends with one of the most consequential stingers in movie history: everyone’s favorite symbiote entered the world of the MCU to star opposite Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.

Sony

What Happened

Let There be Carnage ends with Venom and Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock on the run. They’re heading anywhere people need protecting. The movie’s only post-credits scene shows their nomadic existence has led to them living in cheap quarters in a Spanish-speaking country. (Likely near the US and the beach where they ended the film.) It’s clear they’ve been there for some time. They’re very familiar with the storyline of the Spanish soap opera currently airing. Their discussion about the show leads to Venom agreeing to give Eddie a small fraction of the incredible knowledge symbiotes have acquired while traveling the universe. Venom says it will blow Eddie’s mind.

As Eddie preps himself for the onslaught of cosmic knowledge the lights in his room start to dim and flicker. Then everything gets fuzzy as the walls and furniture begin to shake and shimmer. Initially it seems like this is all in Eddie’s mind, as though he can’t handle what Venom is showing him. But then a big, blinding blast of light, one resembling an atomic bomb explosion rather than a burst of sunlight, appears outside. It fills the room, and in a flash the two are no longer on the cheap bed of their meager room. They’ve transported to the comfy bed of a swanky resort where the TV is airing English-language broadcasts.

Sony

Venom, confused both about what has happened and the folded animal towel on their bed, tells Eddie he didn’t do this. Some other force has drawn them into this strange place. That’s when things go from interesting to world shattering. Multi-world shattering that is. J. Jonah Jameson, the bald-version of J.K. Simmons’ character from Spider-Man: Far From Home, is now on the TV hosting his Daily Bugle “news” talkshow. He’s complaining about the “Spider-Menace” who he says must be stopped.

That’s when Tom freaking Holland’s Peter Parker appears. He’s wearing his Spidey suit from Far From Home, but is completely unmasked. There’s no question that this is the MCU’s Spider-Man. Seeing Peter causes Venom to overtake Eddie. The giant monster finds Peter intoxicating and slurps the television screen showing Parker’s face. The scene then ends with the room’s actual guest walking out and asking Eddie what he’s doing there.

This is a different world entirely than the one Venom existed in. And it overwhelmingly appears to be the world of the MCU. Once you stop freaking out about that, there are a bunch of questions and possibilities to consider. Each with huge ramifications for both the MCU and Sony.

How Did this Happen?

Spider-Man: No Way Home is going to be a multiversal, multi-studio affair. One involving characters from older non-MCU Spidey movies. It will definitely star Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx. And almost certainly Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Willem Dafoe among others. The most likely answer for how Venom, one of Spider-Man’s most famous foes, will unexpectedly be transported into the world of Tom Holland’s character is the same way the others will. That burst of light might be the moment Doctor Strange’s spell, seen in the No Way Home trailer, goes horribly wrong. That fractured spell will shatter time and space, ultimately pulling Molina’s Doc Ock and other non-MCU Spider-Man characters into the franchise.

Marvel/Sony

That’s the most logical and most likely answer. But other potential explanations exist too. That explosion of light and accidental parallel world merging might have something to do with the Hulk’s Blip and/or Tony’s Iron Gauntlet Snap. Earth experiencing three infinity stone snaps in just five years might be too much for the universe to handle. This could also have something to do with the “Emergence” mentioned in Marvel’s Eternals trailer. That definitely has something to do with all those snaps.

Strange’s shattered spell also opens up to a dimension that looks like He Who Remains’ Citadel beyond time. He Who Remains’ death at the hands of Sylvie in Loki can’t be ruled out as the cause of all this multiverse and timeline convergence. That atomic burst of light might come at the exact moment Sylvie kills him. We already know that act has major implications for the MCU.

Marvel

However, the “how” isn’t nearly as important as what this means for both Disney and Sony.

Venom in the MCU

It would be genuinely stunning now if Tom Hardy’s Venom isn’t in Spider-Man: No Way Home. (Especially since Hardy wore a hat for the movie out in public.) That brings the film one step closer to a Sinister Six of baddies for the three Spider-Mans to fight. And seeing this live-action Venom on the same screen as any Peter Parker versus the version of the character we got in Spider-Man 3 will also be one of the all-time best movie upgrades.

Sony

Most importantly, it will make No Way Home complete. The film is drawing from across all Spider-Man related movies. And Venom is one of the most successful ever made—not including him would be a missed opportunity. So we’re going to get one of the coolest, most fun movie experiences ever. A film—where it seems Venom will want to eat Spider-Man!—decades in the making.

However, that doesn’t mean this multiverse crossover will last long.

Marvel

Sony’s Spider-Verse Plans

Whether or not Hardy stays in the MCU for more than one film is unclear. It’s certainly possible, even if that means we see Hardy as a parallel world Variant Venom in the future. But repeated appearances in the MCU are far from a guarantee. They might not even be likely. Just like with Spider-Man, Venom’s rights belong to Sony. And the studio is building its own live-action Spider-Verse. Jared Leto’s Morbius the Living Vampire is the next Spider character getting a standalone film. Considering the first Venom made over $850 million at the worldwide box office, it might not make sense for Sony to continue helping Marvel make billions with Sony’s most popular characters.

Having Eddie Brock show up in a single MCU film is still a great move by Sony though. While it will be incredible seeing Venom in the MCU fighting Holland’s Peter, that crossover is a much bigger boon for Sony than Disney. No Way Home is going to make all the money. That was true before this post-credits scene. But now both Venom films are essential watches for MCU fans who maybe didn’t care about them before.

This is such a big deal for Sony it wouldn’t surprise us if we someday learn Venom’s inclusion in the MCU was secretly one of the issues that caused the temporary rift that resulted in the studios not working together. Or if it was part of the solution to that problem.

Marvel/Sony

One day Sony will want Spider-Man to anchor its own Spider-Verse. And when that happens we might look back at Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s post-credits scene as the moment that transition truly began. Because while Tom Hardy, Eddie Brock, and Venom are coming to the world of the MCU, they might be bringing Peter Parker back to theirs soon.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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