Die Another Day (2002)

         Budget 142 million. Opening dates: UK November 20, 2002; US November 22, 2002

World Box Office $424.7 million

 Originally Written
Monday, April 30, 2007

Brosnan's final stint as the infamous James Bond comes to a rather mediocre close, and the decision of the movie studio to not hire Brosnan back for a 5th film was more than likely due to Die Another Day's poor performance, but the fact of the matter is that's their fault, not Brosnan's. When it's all said and done Die Another Day reverts back to below par story line, average villains, poor acting, recycled action and then throw in Halle Berry! :shudders:

This chapter attempts to take the Bond franchise into a little darker territory when Bond is captured by the North Koreans for killing the General's son and tortured for over a year concerning the details of his mission. Finally Bond is released but it is only due to the United States and the British government agreeing to swap Bond for a North Korean terrorist named Zao. After being released Bond vows to re-capture Zao, which leads him to Cuba and into a partnership with fellow United States spy Jinx (Halle Berry).

Their tailing of Zao leads them to Gustav Graves, an English diamond mogul who seems to have absolutely no fear of death, and a large fascination with weapons, one weapon in particular named Icarus. Icarus is a satellite designed by Graves which produces a massive amount of energy that could light up an entire continent. Graves promotes his creation as a machine built to cover the dark terrain of the Artic  in light for 24 hours, but the real purpose of the satellite is to take over the world, starting with South Korean.

Die Another Day is the first and only film that I have ever purchased before actually viewing. But seeing that I only purchased it for about $1.50 off eBay maybe that really doesn't count as a "blind buy"! Either way I'll say it wasn't a waste of money, the first time I watched it I thoroughly enjoyed it, of course that was prior to doing this feature of watching and reviewing all the Bond films in order. Now watching it for the second time and after the previous installments Die Another Day seems rather pale in comparison.

Overall, I thought the film was slightly better than Tomorrow Never Dies in terms of casting, acting and storyline, but it failed miserably in comparison to action. One of the most noticeable faults in this film is the horrible CGI. It's the first time in a Bond film that CGI was so blatantly noticeable in a majority of the arctic scenes.  Quite a few times it's so bad that I would have rather seen the sub par special effects that were used in the earlier films, at least they looked partially realistic.

Halle Berry is also quite a disaster, her acting is so bad that it almost effects her hottest which is the only reason she has a career at all! But what I found interesting is the person who seems to get the most flack for this film is Madonna, and she was barely in it! She was actually awarded a Razzie for worst supporting actress in this film, which is quite strange since she had about 5 lines and a minute and a half of screen time, last time I checked that was more of a cameo role not supporting actress. That happened to be her second Razzie, her first was for worst actress in some film called Swept Away. I'm in no way attempting to justify Madonna as an actress, but my point being I thought Madonna did a better job in her small role than Halle Berry did in the entire film.

In the end, Die Another Day is another average Bond adventure that takes the franchise a step back after a step forward with The World Is Not Enough.  The whole Icarus satellite reminded me too much of Diamonds Are Forever which had a similar premise to it.  Die Another Day is fun, campy entertainment but if you want to end your Brosnan Bond watching on a high note The World Is Not Enough is probably the best place to stop. 

7/10