Ricky Church continues his countdown to Spectre with a review of Die Another Day…
2002 was a big year for James Bond because it was his 40th anniversary on the big screen and 20th movie, a huge milestone in itself that no other franchise has yet celebrated. To that end, the producers decided to make Die Another Day a film that would celebrate Bond’s endurance on screen while ushering out Pierce Brosnan in his final adventure as the famous secret agent. There is just one tiny problem: Die Another Die is absolutely terrible.
When a mission takes a turn for the worse, Bond is actually captured and held prisoner for more than a year. An agreement is finally reached where he is released and immediately goes on the hunt for the person who set him up. This leads him to the mysterious Gustav Graves, an entrepreneur who mines and trades diamonds. There is, as always, more to Graves than meets the eye and Bond teams up with NSA agent Jinx to stop his nefarious plan.
While the idea of Bond being successfully held captive for a year holds a lot of potential, it never reaches it. We see Bond have one nightmare once he’s released, but otherwise he’s unchanged from his experience; he remains as charming, womanizing and witty than he’s ever been. In fact, Brosnan takes more from Roger Moore’s campy take on Bond in this film than he has in the others, spouting off several terrible puns and quips throughout the course of his mission. Bond isn’t even all that bitter towards M for leaving him prisoner. Quite the opposite actually, he’s more upset that she compromised by making a deal to get him out. This was an interesting development, but again not very well developed.
The supporting cast is not that great either. Halle Berry is one of the worst Bond girls in the franchise and it’s a wonder she came so close to gaining a spin-off film of her own as Jinx. She has nearly zero chemistry with Brosnan and much of her line delivery sounds forced. She’s simply not convincing as Jinx. The same can be said for everyone else. Toby Stephens as Graves is very corny, harkening back to some of the worst villains in the franchise (particularly Moore’s era) as he makes pun after pun. Rosemund Pike gives some good scenes, but devolves into yet another villain spouting puns. Rick Yune’s Zao isn’t very developed or memorable either. Madonna, who sings the film’s awful title song, makes a cameo that is quite useless and eye-rolling as well.
What really harms this film, though, is the constant nods to the franchise’s past. Die Another Day is more concerned with reminding viewers how long the franchise has gone on for rather than telling a meaningful story. While a scene showing numerous gadgets of Bond’s past is a fun scene for longtime fans to pause and seek out particular gadgets, many of the other nods are just pointless and get in the way. Lines are repeated, Goldfinger’s laser is referenced with Jinx in place of Bond, Gustav’s weapon is ultimately a repeat of Blofeld’s space laser, the Aston Martin again has an injector seat. Those are just a few of the nods to the franchise that are in this film and they’re all pointed at so viewers, whether they’re well versed in Bond lore or not, will notice them.
It certainly doesn’t help the film that it goes way overboard on the film’s gadgets by giving Bond an actual invisible car! The CGI is also horrendous, showing an overreliance on computer imagery that just looks terrible. So much of the movie is so obviously shot on green screen and none of the film’s big stunts are realistic or look good. Bond’s paragliding/surfing escape is one of the worst moments in the whole franchise simply because of how fake it looks, ridiculousness notwithstanding. Even Roger Moore famously said “I thought it just went too far – and that’s from me, the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!” You know if Roger Moore makes fun of your Bond movie, you goofed up.
As a longtime Bond fan, I understand the need to celebrate such a huge achievement with nods to the past, but they should be tasteful and subtle, not so in your face. Its weird to be saying that celebrating the Bond franchise’s amazing milestone is something that harms the film, but Die Another Day fails to truly honour the character of Bond and the world he inhabits. With a weak cast, characters and a story that feels recycled from better Bond films, as well as an unrealized potential, Die Another Day is arguably the worst film in the whole franchise.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Ricky Church
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=Yo85WjqklYY
Originally published October 30, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
