Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) Review

Okay, now Brosnan has done more than Dalton and Lazenby combined! Plus, this marks the 20th James Bond film. So you expect that they put all their effort into making this the best Bond film ever. They make references to the origin of Bond, classic scenes are recreated and even gadgets from previous films are seen. Does this make the film a good one or does it just come off as a cheap gimmick? Let's find out!

On a mission in North Korea, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) kills the diamond mogul Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee) and is apprehended by Koreans and tortured. Many years later, Bond is traded for a Korean named Zao (Rick Yune) who, during Bond's mission, ended up with diamonds being studded into his face. Bond winds up in another mission which leads him to millionare Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) and another MI6 agent, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike). Bond teams up with Agent Jinx (Halle Berry) in order to expose Graves' laser beam cannon in space and discover Graves' dark secret. Bond must also find out who betrayed him and got him arrested back in Korea.

While I feel this film is a tad bit over-hated (is that a word?), this is definetly not a plus one to my patented (probably) Constroversal Bond review counter. I agree that this is very much a weak film but it's by no means that worst. What's wrong with it? The first thing is that Halle Berry does not fit in to the Bond world. Jinx is pretty rubbish and if you want to see a good competent Bond girl, go watch Licence to Kill. There is also too much plot. They'res at least three things going on at once. Bond films should have a simplistic plot and the whole 'stop Graves from world domination' thing is all this one needed...although Graves' secret is a nice twist.

Speaking of Graves, he's a pretty cool villain but is a bit too science fictiony for a Bond film. Don't get me wrong, Bond films are anything but realistic, but this is a man who can change his entire body and has a not-so-good Iron Man suit knock off...that can't fly. I do like the fight between him and Bond at the end though...but then again I always do! Miranda Frost is an okay character but doesn't really make an impression...except fencing...

Die Another Day is a weak addition to the Bond series. It seems that the Brosnan films just get worse as they go along. Thank God he stopped here or who knows how bad things could have gotten. It is cool to see John Cleese official take the role as Q but he's not in it for long. Shame really. Things got out of hand in this one and it didn't end well. Not the worst but nowhere near the best.


Verdict:
6/10
A good enough Bond film. Things got pretty farfetched hear and some of the characters are a bit crap.