'No Time To Die' - Trailer thoughts

Yes, Blofeld is back. And the No Time To Die trailer has finally been released today. Before the end of the year I'll be releasing my third book: A View To A Thrill: A Closer Look at The James Bond Trailers, which basically says it all. Needless to say, this promo will be thoroughly commented but I won't really make too much personal statements, so I'll share them with you here, below the official trailer video.

1. As much as everyone else, I'm immensely thrilled and hooked up! This looks like an action-packed Bond film in the style of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, something Skyfall and SPECTRE lacked. I'm really looking forward to April!

2. Humour seems well handled! Loved that "I won't lose... control" line of Bond as he rencounters with Madeleine Swann. Also the way Craig delivers that "Hello, Q, you missed me?" line, it's so fresh and natural, harkens back to the days of Connery.

3. Cinematography looks beautiful, needless to say.

4. I'm happy with the plot, or at least what the plot looks like. It seems there's much more than the villain apart of killing someone or taking revenge. The fact that Safin "plays God" makes it absolutely interesting, finally another megalomaniac in the vibe of Stromberg or Drax (that's what I hope, at least). Some things, though, look repetitive: another speech where Bond is tied up and the villain talks as in Skyfall and we have once again a personal plot with Bond out of duty. But let's see how it turns out.

5. It appears Madeleine somehow betrays Bond or her loyalty to him is questioned. Likewise, she has a past Bond knows nothing about that could unleash a tragedy - or that's what the trailer infers. This reminds me a lot to the John Gardner novels where the characters betray Bond and act as triple agents, I even see Safin similar to Father Valentine from Scorpius in a way. Back to Madeleine, something concerning her past sounds similar to The Legend of Zorro, where Catherine Zeta Jones' Elena had to divorce Alejandro De La Vega in order to act as a Pinkerton spy after being blackmailed by the founders.

6. Only two things I didn't quite like: Nomi playing the cocky female empowered agent. Hopefully they won't go too far with that and it's just a scene; and the final shot of Bond firing through a tunnel. I mean, I do like the shot, but I hope they don't make a Casino Royale-esque gunbarrel out of it. I want the dots, the iris, Bond shoots, the blood drips and iris opens on the first scene. I don't want more excuses to put it somewhere else.

7. On a personal note, I'm gonna miss watching this new Bond adventure with my dad. Had he been among us, I would be now sending him the link to watch the trailer. Sadly he departed by the end of that fateful 2016 when everyone at EON was "a little bit tired" after SPECTRE. He wasn't as much as Bond fan as me, nor he was exactly a Bond fan, but he introduced me to the character and we always shared news.

All in all, I'm quite happy with what I'm seeing. As of this moment I will start writing the final chapter of A View To A Thrill, please stay tuned to the Facebook and Instagram pages of it for updates. The book will be out between December 15 and Christmas. I'll let you know.