'No Time to Die' review: Daniel Craig saves the best for last 

Daniel Craig’s James Bond, we hardly knew you.

Since his debut in "Casino Royale" 15 years ago, Craig has brought a steely charisma to the fictional MI6 agent but never really warmed to the part. Blame Bond’s handlers at Eon Productions, who decided to saddle this male fantasy figure — intentionally created as a blank slate by novelist Ian Fleming in 1953 — with a complicated back story, psychological baggage and a touch of darkness to suit contemporary tastes. The recent Bond films were all hits, but they never seemed to resonate deeply with audiences. Meanwhile, Craig publicly expressed an impatience to shed his Tom Ford suits and move on.

In his fifth and final outing as Agent 007, "No Time to Die," Craig gets his wish. Ironically, it’s one of the best entries in his uneven run. Confidently directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga ("Jane Eyre"), this nearly three-hour thriller serves up the always-satisfying tropes of a Bond film — the European-sedan chase, the well-mannered villain, the high-tech fortress of evil — but finally adds a layer of believable emotion thanks to a thwarted romance between Bond and psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (a moving Léa Seydoux, reprising her role from 2015’s "Spectre"). The film also does right by Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), Bond’s American brother-in-arms at the CIA who pulls him out of retirement for — you guessed it — one last job.

Given that this movie’s 2019 release was delayed by COVID-19, there’s something a little eerie about its premise: A potential pandemic of airborne nanobots that choose their victims. The man behind this humanity-culling plan is known as Safin, though some cheeky screenwriter gave him the first name of Lyutsifer. Played with Zen-like tranquility by Rami Malek, Safin is a serviceable enough villain, but fans may well wonder: Why doesn’t Bond’s longtime nemesis, Blofeld, take center stage? Christoph Waltz returns in the role, but briefly.

As for Craig’s replacement, the film might be testing out possibilities. Could it be Nomi (Lashana Lynch), a cocksure agent who took over Bond’s spot — and his number! — at MI6? It probably won’t be CIA agent Paloma (Ana de Armas, Craig’s co-star in "Knives Out"), though she looks stunning in a slim ribbon of a dress and proves marvelously good in a gunfight. There’s another possibility, also female, but to say more would spoil a very big surprise in the Bond universe.

"No Time to Die" serves up plenty of solid action sequences, including a long take through a stairwell full of armed commandos. Oddly, however, barely a drop of blood is spilled in this film. At crucial moments — a machine gun riddling a body, a man crushed by a car — Fukunaga’s camera almost always looks away. It’s classy, in one sense, but also a little prim by Bond standards.

In keeping with tradition, the closing credits assure us that "James Bond Will Return" — though in what incarnation is anyone’s guess. "No Time to Die" certainly makes a clean sweep of the Craig era. Like Lyutsifer, it wants to start fresh.