We round up the reviews for Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond.

The Guardian: ***** “it is very enjoyable and gleefully spectacular – Craig and Seydoux and Malek sell it very hard and you can see the pleasure everyone takes in this gigantic piece of ridiculously watchable entertainment which feels like half its actual running time.”

The Independent: *** “No Time to Die is at its very best when it allows the actor room to take his final curtsy with both grace and style, allowing him to leave the franchise with not only a good dollop of dignity, but a reminder that he gave Bond a soul.”

The Telegraph: ***** “We’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond, for quite some time – and what a joy and relief it is to have you back.”

Variety: ” It finishes off the saga of Craig’s 007 in the most honestly extravagant of style.”

Evening Standard: **** “Fukunaga serves up derring do that’s iconoclastic on so many levels. He couldn’t have done it without Craig, though.”

www.rogerebert.com: ** “What keeps “No Time to Die” watchable (outside of a typically committed turn from Craig) is the robust visual sense that Fukunaga often creates when he doesn’t have to focus on plot. The opening sequence is tightly framed and almost poetic—even just the first shot of a hooded figure coming over a snowy hill has a grace that Bond often lacks.”

The Times: ***** “For a while there it seemed deliberate. A genius piece of marketing hype. The new Bond movie, fleeing from cinema release dates ahead of the global Covid wave, from October 2019 to February 2020 to April 2020 to November 2020 to April 2021 to now. And during this time the title No Time to Die became a tantalising synonym for delayed gratification, one that suggested any actual, eventual viewing of the film would be the optimal achievement for the prospective movie-goer, while smartly sidelining the more fundamental question: But is it any good? And so, is it?”

Hollywood Reporter: “Regardless of the plotting deficiencies and occasional pacing lags, there’s plenty here for diehard Bond fans to savor, with a frisson of excitement every time Hans Zimmer’s stirring score sneaks in a few bars of Monty Norman’s classic original Bond theme. It may not rank up there with Skyfall, but it’s a moving valedictory salute to the actor who has left arguably the most indelible mark on the character since Connery.”

The Scotsman: ***** “Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation, True Detective) gives the film a visceral immediacy that’s quite different from the previous outings – and script contributions from Phoebe Waller-Bridge have certainly beefed up the female characters, with Craig’s Knives Out co-star Ana de Armas brilliant as a newly qualified CIA agent he encounters in Cuba and Seydoux’s character given the sort of complex arc and no-nonsense attitude that was sorely lacking in Spectre.”

Time Out: ***** “But by whatever metrics you measure a Bond movie – tight plotting, gnarly villains, emotional sincerity – Craig’s final outing is a rip-roaring success. #CraigNotBond feels like a very long time ago now, in every sense.”

Digital Spy: “It’s densely plotted yet snappily paced, meaning that the movie rarely stops for breath before the next big action sequence or another revelation. To go into any more detail risks spoilers, but safe to say, there’s plenty for Bond fans to debate post-viewing.”

Vulture.com: “Still, amid the grit and the attempted emotional catharses and the Sturm und Drang, there is an actual Bond movie in there. No Time to Die is fun, but only when it dares to be.”

Den of Geek: “No Time to Die strives to be an epic and just misses; it’s certainly a huge movie and there’s a lot of it, but it never quite takes your breath away. Yet Daniel Craig does achieve that effect as Bond, giving a final performance that the series has never quite seen before.”

iNews: **** “No Time to Die is a movie not only obsessed by its characters’ personal histories, but by its own; it has every inclination to wear its homages to the series on its Brioni sleeve, from its frequent musical interludes (they never get old) to its rather surprising choice to bring back the Sixties-flavour Bond quip (these sometimes do get old).”

No Time to Die is released in cinemas on the 30th September.