Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Stefan G — 05 Dec 2014

The Bond franchise frequently takes dives into the realm of banality, and in this regard, Die Another Day is perhaps one of the worst in this category. The story is a massive joke that just seems to make even less sense as it goes along, and the big problem is that the story revolves around gadgets, and this is where the film started getting really carried away.

Everything about the film looks and sounds shallow, with an overabundance of CGI effects and gadgets that are absurd even by Bond standards (I don't think I need to mention that damned invisible car), and scenes that often look slovenly edited.

When film-makers put too much of an emphasis on special effects, this invariably affects the writing and acting. The characters were borderline poor in this film, but it's not quite as tedious as A View to a Kill.

The tedium of the film is what ruins what might otherwise have been a decent movie, but perhaps the real problem is that, after twenty films, Bond doesn't seem to have freshened up his act at all, which is extremely jarring when you consider that this was the first film in the franchise to be made and released in the 21st century, and for something like that, it's very disappointing.