Die Another Day
Seeing Bond films have always been, to me, one of my most favoured and enjoyed experiences and so naturally I went to the cinema with great expectations for the new film: Die Another Day. Even the title managed tro summon hope within me that a truly classic film was about to emerge. And I have to say I am very disappointed at what I saw.The film begins in South Korea with James Bond entering with style (I won't spoil it!) as he usually does. I won't go into detail about the events that ensue but sure enough there is a chase on hovercrafts and, quite unusually for a bond film, he gets captured and tortured for about 14 months. So far the film has been exciting and has managed to keep it's prestige although, if you think about it, I don't think there is any Bond film where this has happened. Ever. Bond and Caught are two words that simply don't go together. As the film moves on, the story line is fairly easy to follow and very soon I found that it began to take on a different feel to any other Bond film I've seen. It does have the stylish Bond phrases but it has lost a great deal of it's class and by the time your reaching about the mid-way point you are beginning to think along the lines of something like Austin Powers with a serious plot. During the film I cannot remember a single classy Casino and his Suave Bow tie and dinner suit.
Now I am well aware that James Bond is not meant to be taken seriously but it seemed to me when watching it that many of the action sequences are far too fluky for even Bond to survive. This whowever is not the biggest problem I had with the film. That would have to be the fact that the gadgets are getting far too futuristic. In every Bond film in the past all the gadgets, however clever they are, are never far outside our technology whereas in this film there are several which would be so far impossible to make. The major example of this is that his car can go invisisble at the click of a button. The pathetic excuse for this is that it has thousands of little cameras all around the car and it films the surroundings and screens it onto the side of the car so that it appears to be see through (yer right!)
I would not like to give the wrong impression in this review and I feel that I have been very negative about the film. I have only just seen it and I think that a lot of this is simply because I still feel let down after all the expectations I had for it. YOU WILL PROBABLY ENJOY THE FILM! But anyone who is a die-hard fan is not likely to be too pleased. I have to say that one bit of the ending was quite good, considering the rest of the film, and this must not be revealed. You'll have to go see it yourself.