Our movie guy, James Finnegan, on the new James Bond movie which has opened in cinemas…

“We’ve been expecting you Mr. Bond.”

Well we have.  So eighteen months later than expected, thanks to you know what, the final instalment of the Daniel Craig era has arrived – and it is everything you could have hoped for, and more.

Like a child on Christmas morning, and of course as part of my duty to our TraleeToday.ie readers, I was up good and early to see “No Time to Die” on Wednesday at midnight.

Continued below…

Like a well-told fairy tale, you know what you are going to get with a Bond film.  Baddies and henchmen (one of whom has a bionic eye), all-action stunts, explosions, exotic locations (Italy, Jamaica, Cuba, Faroe Islands), the Aston Martin doing its thing and, of course, the witty one liners.

The film opens with the longest pre-credit sequence which includes a troubling childhood trauma for Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), who we met in the last 007 film Spectre.  A shocking ambush breaks up the couple and Bond retires from MI6 going to Jamaica.

A few years later, a sinister Biowarefare weapon is developed by a dodgy scientist.  Both the scientist, Obruchev, and the weapon go missing.

MI5 send Bond’s replacement Nomi (Lashana Lynch) to retrieve them, while Bond’s CIA friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) persuades Bond to take on the task as a freelance operative.

It’s all part of a master plan devised first by Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) from his Hannibal Lecter style cell, then taken up by this film’s baddie Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek)

There is no shortage of plot in this Bond film.  It’s as if they have said; “If less is more, think how much more, more would be”.

However, I did not feel the time going.  There are lovely subtle hints to previous Bond films, books and characters even within Hans Zimmer’s operatic style soundtrack to satisfy the 007 devotees.

The wonderful supporting cast of Ralph Fiennes (M), Ben Whishaw (Q), Naomie Harris (Moneypenny) and Rory Kinnear (Tanner) all have their moments to shine.  I hope this will not be the last time we see them in these roles.

Superbly directed by Cary Joli Fukunaga and with a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fukunaga, this is a top class 25th addition to the EON Production series.

Finally, there is Daniel Craig himself.  Unfairly derided before he had even filmed a scene, he has made his interpretation of Bond as memorable and distinctive as any of his predecessors Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan.  This is a brilliant fitting finale to his run.

Prepare yourself for months of potential replacement names and suggestions.  Yes, I am available if required, because the most important line in the film is in the traditional final frame – “James Bond Will Return”