Huge Bond fan here. Apologise if the below gets a bit anorak-esque. But here goes... maybe some mild spoilers here. Depends on your definition.
I'm beginning to suspect that MGM are deliberately feeding us all the ingredients of a classic Bond film, but breaking them up evenly over all of Brosnan's efforts rather than putting them all into one film. If we could splice the grit of Goldeneye, the gadgets of Tomorrow Never Dies, the locations of The World is Not Enough and the girls of Die Another Day then we would have a Bond to beat all on our hands.
But no...
Die Another Day is a good film, and not a particularly bad Bond film either, but it just doesn't fit with the canon. Even Moonraker was plausible in the face of some of the gadgets and weapons we see here; invisible cars, cyborg suits, 30 foot wide orange energy beams... they belong in the Star Wars franchise, not the Bond one. In fact they maybe even belong in the Austin Powers franchise. I can see Dr Evil now... 'all I want is a f*****n 30 foot wide orange energy beam... is that too much to ask, people?'
And don't get me started on the second surfing sequence in this film. The first one in the opening credits is great, but the second... suffice to say that this film was five minutes too long, and the glacier/tsunami surfing scene is five minutes that serves no function to the plot and snaps us out of the action by offering a stunt so outrageously implausible that you laugh (for the wrong reasons) and CGI so outrageously bad that my mate Andrew could do better on his iMac. Why they left it in baffles me. Bond goes out of the enemy base, does something utterly stupid, goes back to the base. Lose the utterly stupid stuff? Nah... leave it in.
Oh, quick aside on the product placement row that broke out prior to release; didn't notice a single brand name apart from the cars. Less obvious than the product placement in the previous 3 Brosnan efforts by a long shot. At no point, for example, does he drive a tank through a large truck labelled 'Perrier'...
Perhaps the most frustrating thing of all is that when it ditches the high-tech sci-fi FX-laden side of things this is the best stuff they've done in ages with Bond. The opening scene and ensuing capture (the first time we've ever seen Bond certain he's a dead man) and the sword fight are excellent, as is - to be fair - some of the fancy stuff like the car-chase on ice and the laser-dodging fight. But the film is kept from greatness by its aspirations beyond its roots.
I accept in today's day and age you need big bangs, a little CGI and a glimpse of Bond actually having sex for a change. I don't mind these elements being incorporated. I even liked the endless in jokes (Bond reading the actual book written by a guy James Bond from which Fleming got the name in the first place - class).
But until you can make a man surfing a glorified banana-skin on a 100 foot wave with a parachute look convincing, keep it the hell out of the film.
I'm beginning to suspect that MGM are deliberately feeding us all the ingredients of a classic Bond film, but breaking them up evenly over all of Brosnan's efforts rather than putting them all into one film. If we could splice the grit of Goldeneye, the gadgets of Tomorrow Never Dies, the locations of The World is Not Enough and the girls of Die Another Day then we would have a Bond to beat all on our hands.
But no...
Die Another Day is a good film, and not a particularly bad Bond film either, but it just doesn't fit with the canon. Even Moonraker was plausible in the face of some of the gadgets and weapons we see here; invisible cars, cyborg suits, 30 foot wide orange energy beams... they belong in the Star Wars franchise, not the Bond one. In fact they maybe even belong in the Austin Powers franchise. I can see Dr Evil now... 'all I want is a f*****n 30 foot wide orange energy beam... is that too much to ask, people?'
And don't get me started on the second surfing sequence in this film. The first one in the opening credits is great, but the second... suffice to say that this film was five minutes too long, and the glacier/tsunami surfing scene is five minutes that serves no function to the plot and snaps us out of the action by offering a stunt so outrageously implausible that you laugh (for the wrong reasons) and CGI so outrageously bad that my mate Andrew could do better on his iMac. Why they left it in baffles me. Bond goes out of the enemy base, does something utterly stupid, goes back to the base. Lose the utterly stupid stuff? Nah... leave it in.
Oh, quick aside on the product placement row that broke out prior to release; didn't notice a single brand name apart from the cars. Less obvious than the product placement in the previous 3 Brosnan efforts by a long shot. At no point, for example, does he drive a tank through a large truck labelled 'Perrier'...
Perhaps the most frustrating thing of all is that when it ditches the high-tech sci-fi FX-laden side of things this is the best stuff they've done in ages with Bond. The opening scene and ensuing capture (the first time we've ever seen Bond certain he's a dead man) and the sword fight are excellent, as is - to be fair - some of the fancy stuff like the car-chase on ice and the laser-dodging fight. But the film is kept from greatness by its aspirations beyond its roots.
I accept in today's day and age you need big bangs, a little CGI and a glimpse of Bond actually having sex for a change. I don't mind these elements being incorporated. I even liked the endless in jokes (Bond reading the actual book written by a guy James Bond from which Fleming got the name in the first place - class).
But until you can make a man surfing a glorified banana-skin on a 100 foot wave with a parachute look convincing, keep it the hell out of the film.
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