Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Vidyabum — 22 Oct 2021

Out of 25 Bonds I saw, I place this one at 16/25.

As I rate it the highest of Brosnan's Bonds, which were all utterly poor, I feel like giving him a bit of business now. Brosnan simply didn't act. He just more or less gawked at the cameraOut of 25 Bonds I saw, I place this one at 16/25.

As I rate it the highest of Brosnan's Bonds, which were all utterly poor, I feel like giving him a bit of business now.

Brosnan simply didn't act. He just more or less gawked at the camera with a wry smile that he believed expressed an air of confidence, but only expresses the feeling of watching a hair commercial with a pretty boy smiling. It's not like he is necessarily a completely incompetent actor, but he IS the worst Bond. Playing a character like James Bond is more difficult than you'd think because you're supposed to exude a sort of shameless, teenage virility, while killing and getting shot at all the time. It's a strange mix of manhood and teenagehood, of wit and mockery, and serious acts, of being a superman that just never dies and yet has to show that he's in danger.

Brosnan was always doing the same face of a pretty boy with a wry smile. His movies were also the last "true Bonds", since Craig's era has many core style changes and completely revamps the franchise to the point that it's simply not Bond anymore.

Brosnan was the last one to carry Bond's suit, and this is his last movie. So in being the man that finally, completely, in every possible way, buried James Bond, how does he fare in his last outing?

Well, quite well actually. For Brosnan.

Die Another Day is by no means a masterpiece of anything. But if you compare with action-packed, terribly written (insert all Brosnan and lots of Moore movies here), it is a movie with better wit, better plot, rather good directing, and interesting situations.

From being actually taken prisoner, to hunting down his enemies, being treated like a traitor, searching alone, finding allies, and unravelling the villains main plot, there is a generally milquetoast but still alright plot.

The villain feels like a determined and cunning foe. It's not a great villain, the wit from the old era is long gone, his style or charm are near zero. But it's neither an idiot, nor some angry manchild, nor anything stupid, he at least feels like a real foe.

The plot and style may fly all over the place and go into the worst corners, but we're used to it with Bond.

The action has a particular flair, and this is the Bond with one of the most memorable and realistic fights, a sword fight at that, in the series history.

Overall, if you're ever curious about Brosnan's Bond, even after all I wrote, this is the least painful of his movies. It's his best acting (not saying much, I know), one of the more solid plots, good action, and Halle Berry may have not been a great actress but she is a pleasure to see nonetheless.

Lastly, since I'm writing a review on every Bond movie, when I made a list of best to worst, I ranked some from the top, and some from the bottom. The bottom ones were the ones that I believed were just bad enough that they didn't deserve to even be seen. Out of the bottom ones, Die Another Day is the best. No Brosnan movies deserve to be seen IMO, but at least, this one is the least bad of the bad ones, and is the closest to deserve the moniker "mediocre" rather than bad.