Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Stijn V — 07 May 2016

Die Another Day marks the final return of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, but also proves that not every Bond-movie is a good movie. Die Another Day is wildly seen as one of the worst movies ever made and even Bond-fans agree that it's the worst movie of the series. Whoever, I think that there are some fine scenes hidden in this action-thriller.

While Brosnan's main babe is played by Halle Berry, Rosamund Pike is a very interesting Bond Girl. Pike plays the villainess Miranda Frost and she later betrays Bond while their confronted by the movie's main villain: Gustav Graves. Die Another Day was not only Pike's first big screen appearance, but she is also a high light in this weak movie. Pike is the only actress in this movie that actually manages to deliver and she plays her role in a real seriousness that we aren't used to yet.

Like any other Bond-movie, Die Another Day has a lot of action-scenes. The action-scenes from Die Another Day are sadly ruined by bad CGI-effects and the only enjoyable action scene is the fencing match between Bond and Gustav Graves. The scene were Bond uses a door to escape from a tsunami is just laughable. Director Lee Tamahori definitely made some bad choices here.

The movie also suffers from a weak and unconvincing story and a pour script. Characters aren't flashed-out and they fall flat when they appear on the screen. This also isn't Brosnan's best performance as Bond and the supporting cast also delivers a weak job. Halle Berry and Toby Stephens are both extremely talented actors, but they are extremely bad in this movie. I think that the writers didn't took enough time to give the actors a good role and the actors had very less to work with. This is actually very sad, considering that Berry received an Academy Award a few years prior to Die Another Day.

Die Another Day is too goofy and the CGI-effects ruins most of the action-scenes and the inclusion of SCI-FI elements (like the invisible car), make Die Another Day a laughable movie. Luckily, James Bond manages to recover and strike back in 2006's Casino Royale.