Review 161: Die Another Day
Starting off in North Korea, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is betrayed and captured. 14 months later, Bond is set free, but traded for Zao (Rick Yune) who was captured by MI6. When back in his world, Bond sets off to track down Zao. Bond gets caught up in yet another scheme which sends him to millionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens). Another MI6 agent known as Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) is also posing as a friend of Graves. Bond is invited to a presentation held by Graves about a satellite found in space which can project a huge laser beam. Bond must stop this madman with a fellow American agent, known as Jinx (Halle Berry). Whilst Bond tries to stop Graves and Zao, will he finally reveal who betrayed him?
In terms of the basic skeleton of the story, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have clearly drawn inspiration from Ian Fleming's third 007 novel Moonraker drawing several elements such as the patriotic British gentlemen's image hiding an unscrupulous villain, a Blades Club face-off and Bond Girl Miranda Frost is clearly based on the Gala Brand character from that book.
The film starts off uncharacteristically dark, Bond gets captured after an assignment in North Korea goes tits up and winds up as a POW is unexpected and something we've never seen him in which feels ripped out of le Carre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and his decision to seeks revenge gives the film a very emotional and personal feel.
The scenes of him in North Korea prison are harrowing and hard hitting.
After the 60 min mark, the plot turns really goofy with the introduction of Garves' Icarus sattelite
I would compare Die Another Day's narrative to a rollercoaster with plenty of twists and surprises and just when you think the ride is over, the roller coaster gives you a couple of seconds of breath and thrusts you right back into the action.
It's a messy narrative to be sure, but god help me, it makes for one hell of a ride.
Whats intruiguing is Col. Moon/Graves plan of uniting North and South Korea but that's never fully explored or developed nor does it unfold in any particularly smart way and ends up pushed to the side when you have to suspect that it might have better served the film to be more healthily fleshed out.
Two plot points, one of them involving the Icarus satellite super-weapon, seem to be lifted from 1971's Diamonds Are Forever which does beg the question as to why the writers would bother borrowing from one of the lesser Bond films? Seriously was it really worth making a giant heat beam satellite to destroy one mine field?
Ok it's silly but is it fun? Absoletley. It's aware it's dumb and it has fun with it.
Director Lee Tamahori's direction is absolutely bonkers, the action scenes are exciting, the stunts are gloriously spectacular, the score by David Arnold is tremendous, the title song by Madonna is... the only word is bizzare.
The cinematography is splendid and captures the beauty and alure of the films locations. The humour and oneliners are admittedly dumb but for a film series that's made a living out of producing cheesy one liners, they're... ingeniously dumb; This film features a "Your Mom" joke at one point as well as a henchman named Mr. Kil and you're either going to love it or hate it.
The production design is appropriately outlandish and imaginative, the costume are fabulous, the locations are beautiful, the gadgets are crazy but fun, in particular an invisible Aston Martin Vanquish that includes an ejector seat, target seeking shotguns, missles and spiked tyres.
For the first time in the 40 year old series, big GCI heavy sequences join the usual practical effects and stunt work we've grown use to: a disintegrating plane in the climax and Bond surfing a wave are obviously both made of
ones and zeroes, but by then we've seen too many amazing sights and stunts to complain.
Pierce Brosnan once again excels in the role of James Bond, managing to balance out the serious hard edge, humour and vulnerability of the character. The latter of which is vital considering he's a POW for 14 months. During this time he's tortured and beated within an inch of his life until he's a reggedy shell of his former self and doesn't make an escape through one of Qs gadets. Eventually he's freed in a prisoner exchange and only for M (Judi Dench) to suspend him from duty on suspicion that he cracked. Is he another Manchurian Candidate?
Halle Berry makes for a fine addition to the Bond films tradition of post-modern, tough, kick-ass heroines. In the similar mould of Anya Amasova, Wai Lin, Holly Goodhead she's an agent, she's involved in the action, she's not just window dressing. At the beginning of the film she's very much an enigma wrapped in a puzzle inside a mystery box, a seemingly cold-hearted killer capable of carrying out an assassination and evading capture. She's very much Bond's equal; a competant and deadly agent whose dynamic with Bond at times turns the film into a buddy picture.
As the main attagonist Gustav Graves, Toby Stephens is appropriately smug and arrogant whilist also bring the much need charm and charisma required. He's very much based Hugo Darx from Moonraker, from building a huge space project to supposedly solve the world's problems, being a media darling, building his fortune on mining and having an extravagent lifestyle, to even mysterous past as a fomer member of a totalitarian government.
Pierce Brosnan once again excels in the role of James Bond, managing to balance out the serious hard edge, humour and vulnerability of the character. The latter of which is vital considering he's a POW for 14 months. During this time he's tortured and beated within an inch of his life until he's a reggedy shell of his former self and doesn't make an escape through one of Qs gadets. Eventually he's freed in a prisoner exchange and only for M (Judi Dench) to suspend him from duty on suspicion that he cracked. Is he another Manchurian Candidate?
Halle Berry makes for a fine addition to the Bond films tradition of post-modern, tough, kick-ass heroines. In the similar mould of Anya Amasova, Wai Lin, Holly Goodhead she's an agent, she's involved in the action, she's not just window dressing. At the beginning of the film she's very much an enigma wrapped in a puzzle inside a mystery box, a seemingly cold-hearted killer capable of carrying out an assassination and evading capture. She's very much Bond's equal; a competant and deadly agent whose dynamic with Bond at times turns the film into a buddy picture.
As the main attagonist Gustav Graves, Toby Stephens is appropriately smug and arrogant whilist also bring the much need charm and charisma required. He's very much based Hugo Darx from Moonraker, from building a huge space project to supposedly solve the world's problems, being a media darling, building his fortune on mining and having an extravagent lifestyle, to even mysterous past as a fomer member of a totalitarian government.
It's almost impossible to talk about Graves without giving away a major plot twist in later portion of the film. We eventually learn that he's actually Col. Moon (who Bond was sent to assinate in the opening of the film) having changed his race with DNA surgery. The film would have greatly benefited from a quick flashback illustrating how he survived his run-in with Bond and how he fabricated his cover story so convincingly. The white-washing implications of this reveal are profound making the whole thing come across as offensive. Is the thought of an Asian actor playing
your lead villain so unconscionable you to have to replace him with a different actor? This central plot reveal is completely unbelievable and amounts
to little more than a lousy gimmick. The writers simply didn't play fair – because there was no way
the character of Col. Moon whom we saw at the beginning of the film could have been the character we
saw later.
Rosamund Pike (in her feature film debut) brings an appropriately ice cool demeanor to her role of fellow MI6 agent Miranda Frost while also channeling an elegance and a steely required for the character. Outwardly, investigating Graves by posing as his publicist, unolding events in the films show that she may not be as innocent as she lets on.
Elsewhere in the cast, Rick Yune, Kenneth Tsang, Will Yun Lee, Michael Madsen, Samantha Bond, Colin Salmon, John Cleese & Judi Dench round out the cast with thankless performances. Cleese and Dench in particular are a shining light of pure brilliance playin Q & M
All the same, I enjoyed Die Another Day. I liked the action, I liked the absurdity, I liked the incongruous use and misuse gadgets and lets the characters fight it out big action scenes and special effects, 4/5.
The Anonymous Critic
Rosamund Pike (in her feature film debut) brings an appropriately ice cool demeanor to her role of fellow MI6 agent Miranda Frost while also channeling an elegance and a steely required for the character. Outwardly, investigating Graves by posing as his publicist, unolding events in the films show that she may not be as innocent as she lets on.
Elsewhere in the cast, Rick Yune, Kenneth Tsang, Will Yun Lee, Michael Madsen, Samantha Bond, Colin Salmon, John Cleese & Judi Dench round out the cast with thankless performances. Cleese and Dench in particular are a shining light of pure brilliance playin Q & M
All the same, I enjoyed Die Another Day. I liked the action, I liked the absurdity, I liked the incongruous use and misuse gadgets and lets the characters fight it out big action scenes and special effects, 4/5.
The Anonymous Critic
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