It has been a painful five years since the release of No Time To Die, with “source of all of my pain” mainly stemming from both the movie itself and the unprecedented wait for its successor.

I genuinely wanted to enjoy Craig’s swan song, but the decision to kill James Bond caused me to leave the theater of a James Bond movie with a feeling of disappointment for the first time ever. The movie had the audacity to ask me to fully invest in Bond’s unconvincing chemistry with Madeleine Swann as well as his daughter Mathilde, an absolute misfire of a plotline that reigns stupidity supreme. By placing so much emphasis on Bond’s personal life, it diluted the escapist aspect everyone loves about a Bond Movie, and by the time the missiles came raining down on 007 himself, I was almost ready to volunteer for the blast alongside him.

Hopefully the next creative team recognizes that this particular experiment was an unsatisfying chapter for 007. Did they really expect me to leave the theater thrilled that Bond was dead and the Bond girl and his daughter ended up driving the DB5?

Here’s to hoping the current gap between movies remains the largest ever, with future movies are released on a more frequent cadence and subsequent Bond plotlines not nearly as offensive to diehard fans.