Pros: an invisible car, lots of action scenes with explosions and fighting
Cons: what is this movie really about? I'm confused. Focus jumps around way too much
The Bottom Line: The 007 fantasy is dying a long and painful death. The title seems a suitable since no one will let go of 007 until the audience stops watching one day.
Die Another Day (who comes up with these titles: The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies?!!!) is the fourth Pierce Brosnan Bond movie and the 20th Bond movie, that is if you don't count Casino Royale. Given that it's the 40th anniversary of the first Bond film release, it is expected that the guys behind the 007 franchise will do everything they could to boost themselves for this anniversary. These range from 007 premier opening parties all over the globe to selling 007 40th anniversary video and DVD releases, 007 video games on all platforms, sponsor marketing of 007 merchandise including the Omega watch, the cars (Aston Martins, Jaguars), etc. There are also lots of reminiscing to do in this movie, from going over old gadgets of Bond's yesteryears to subtle references to old movies for die hard Bond fans. Such include Bond posing as an orinthologist, to Halle Berry's splashing entrance to rival Ursula Andress in Dr. No. But, with all the hype around this latest Bond film, you do realize that it has been 40 years and you can't help but feel old. Even if you weren't even born when the original came out, you do realize that maybe you've probably outgrown James Bond after all these years because you can't remember the last great Bond film you've seen. Well, at least, I think that. Maybe 40 is a good round number.
The plot of the movie first starts in a demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, where Bond is expected to thwart a hovercraft weapon for diamonds exchange between Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee) and Mr. Van Beert with Bond impersonating as Van Beert. Bond is betrayed and gets his cover blown and after a chase, gets captured by General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), the Colonel's father and tortured for 14 months. To prevent Bond from leaking any more intelligence secrets while he's held and tortured in North Korea, the West arrange to exchange Zao (Rick Yune), Colonel Moon's right hand man, for Bond. After the exchange, Bond is detained and officially de-commissioned, relieved of his duties because the British Secret Service has no more use of him. He escapes and gets the support of the Chinese Intelligence to track down Zao to Cuba, to a DNA therapy and identity conversion lab, where Zao is getting DNA transplants to transform to a new identity. Along the way, he meets Halle Berry ("Jinx") and they end up destroying the lab. During the fight with Zao, Bond gets hold of Zao's bullet-like chain and discovers diamonds etched with Gustav Graves' logo hidden in the bullet shell. His journey then takes him to London to meet Gustav Graves where they have a "friendly" duel where the winner is the man who draws first blood above the torso. After the fight, Graves invites Bond to Iceland for the presentation of his Icarus solar powered energy project and unveiling of the diamond mine. There, Bond bumps into Jinx and they uncover the fake diamond mine front and the true use of the Icarus project, a solar powered defense weapon used to destroy every country in the way of North Korea. Bond blows up the ice palace and fake mine and returns to North Korea with Jinx to stop Graves, who they discover is actually Colonel Moon, after DNA gene therapy. And like most typical Bond movies, the film ends with the villain killed and the weapons destroyed, and Bond ending up with the girl. Whew! What else do you expect from a Bond film?
This Bond film is quite different from most other Bond films in many respects. First of all, unlike other Bond films, Bond doesn't actually complete his assignment and then goes on to the next one. He actually gets captured and tortured for 14 months. We get to see James Bond or Pierce Brosnan as a grubby, bearded man tortured with scorpions during the opening credits. This shows James Bond as being human, vulnerable, making mistakes and enduring torture, not like some superhuman that he has always been portrayed. This is a newer Bond, and in some ways, a nice change. Second, the title song, unlike most Bond films is a hypnotic, discoesque, dance tune sung by Madonna, which in other films, would fit nicely. But this is a Bond film and disco doesn't seem to fit very well. Third, the plot seems quite simple but the execution of events are very scrambled and not well constructed. We are taken all over the world first in North Korea, then Hong Kong, then Cuba, then Iceland and then back to North Korea. The events in the movie doesn't flow very well and at times seem totally out of place. I was left wondering many times how I got to the current scene. This film seems to hop around from place to place and I find that it's quite disrupting to watch. It can seem confusing. There's too much action and everything seems rushed, even the filming (probably because the filmmakers want to make the 40th anniversary deadline, I guess) and editing. This movie doesn't seem to be much of a cohesive film. It almost seems like they did a bunch of scenes and locales and then just put them together, like those uncompleted final films like Bruce Lee's Game of Death. Forth, the villains don't seem all that nasty or threatening as they used to. Zao seems like a freak with diamond studs on his face. And Graves looks younger than Bond, almost fresh out of college. Fifth, you'd think that after 20 Bond films that they've probably hashed and rehashed all possible formulas for an action packed spy movie. Maybe I'm getting old and tired of the Bond formula. There's only so much exotic locales, spiffy cars, action scenes, tech gadgets, Bond girls that I can take. Well, the invisible car was nice, although it almost seemed too fake. Sixth, this movie at times could almost be seen as a large budget commercial for its sponsors. Take the car chase scene in Iceland. It left me thinking about whether it was one of those Goodyear tire commercials or even those BMW Films commercials. It seemed that obvious. Seventh, the melting ice and the surf wave scene was way too computer generated for an untrained eye like mine to notice. It seemed too fake. That, adds to my belief that this movie was too rushed to production for the 40th anniversary.
As I said before, this movie feels like I've watched it before. It had elements of Goldeneye (the betrayal and settling a score), Goldfinger (a laser weapon), The Man with the Golden Gun (using solar power for destructive means), Diamonds are forever (diamond smuggling). I was wondering whether this was a remake.
I came out of this movie feeling a bit confused. The plot wasn't that great. Pierce Brosnan does an okay job of playing Bond. Halle Berry did all she could for her part. It wasn't an oscar winning performance but at least she played a kick butt type, no nonsense kind of female lead who could take care of herself most times and still look sexy. That was a fresh look for the new Bond girl. At least this gal can kick and look like she knew what she was doing. The regular supporting cast of Judi Dench, John Cleese, and Samantha Bond does the best they could to help support the movie. There really isn't anything wrong with the acting. Maybe they could have gotten someone else as a villain since I didn't find the character of Gustav Graves by Toby Stephens that menacing or nasty. Rick Yune as Zao was better but he was really only a henchman. Kenneth Tsang who played General Moon is no stranger to many Chinese filmgoers. He's a veteran HK actor who I found quite refreshing to watch. I enjoyed his scenes and only wished that there were more. Rosamund Pike, as the frosty double agent, Miranda Frost almost seemed too cold. It wasn't until she was exposed as a double agent that I started enjoying watching her. And what was that cameo with Madonna? Did she negotiate it into her 007 theme contract? It seemed out of place. Well, at least, now, Madonna could say she was in a blockbuster movie, even though her role was just a cameo. And, she had tons of makeup on her that I could hardly recognise her. Yuck.
I guess the other reason I wasn't all that impressed with the movie is that I may be getting old. After 40 years of James Bond, how many tricks or plots or a secret agent out to save the world have I not watched. I think James Bond, the concept is almost getting old. In this day and age post Cold War, spy movies aren't as exciting as they once were.
To add to negative feelings towards this movie, some questions arose when watching this movie. Bond is supposedly out of his job or inactive according to his government secret services agency, how is it that he is able to pay for his services, his tailor, etc. So, is it all compliments of the hotel or the Chinese government? And why would anyone or any country want to give him anything? And, for the Secret Service to de-commission him and then put him back into action, it seems all too easy and too nicely wrapped up. I guess I have to keep reminding myself that this is after all, a James Bond movie.
This movie, if you view it as a no brains action movie, will be okay. There are lots of action scenes, fighting scenes, chase scenes and explosions. If you're looking for a good plot, then you'll be disappointed. I doubt that there will be any better Bond movies that will come out in the future but we will still faithfully go to watch just to try to re-live the James Bond fantasy, even if they aren't as good as they used to be. Just watch Pierce Brosnan with the beautiful women in the exotic locales, shooting the bad guys and don't complain. At least he's still a better Bond than some of his predeccessors like Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.
Thanks for taking the time to read and rate my review.
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