Definitely Died Today
Pierce Brosnan’s final Bond film was more of a sparkler and less than a firework.
Bond is back! This time he gets double-crossed during a mission which leads to his capture and torture. Thinking the worst, almost sure he was a deadman, he is dealt a lucky break as he is traded for the life of a villain. When he gets back to the good side, he is immediately stripped of his ’00’ status and suspended until further notice. Not one to sit around, he finds himself alone and hunting down not only the bad guys (who happen to be rogue Korean arms dealers), but also hunting down someone within his own agency that has set him up. Along the way, he meets up with an American agent named Jinx, who helps Bond track down the bad guys…. amongst other things.
Oddly enough, Die Another Day seemed to be a direct reflection of Brosnan’s final days as James Bond. Bond failed at the beginning of the film (in the actual movie) and spent the rest of the film trying to find his way to solve his issues and survive. You could certainly tell in the film that Brosnan seemed to be going through the motions (not to say he wasn’t trying) as the franchise itself had gone stale. For his four films as the character he had gone through pretty much the same formula, but regretfully his tenure was around the time audiences were begging for a change, and not because of him, because of the formulaic story.
There really isn’t a problem with Die Another Day, technically, as it hit on all the notes that we were use to. The real problem with this movie is that it hit on all the notes we were use to, in other words it didn’t bring anything new to the franchise. The story certainly didn’t help either as it was completely uninspiring. The fact that the villain had built a weapon (called the Icarus) that used the power of the sun to destroy things (all he destroyed was the border between North/South Korea didn’t lend much to excitement. And this film, while I hate being a debby downer, had a severe lack of action compared to previous versions.
On the flip-side to this, Bond gets captured for the very first time in his opening introduction. That was a change. Madonna’s song wasn’t bad either. Honestly, it’s not the worst story in the world, but not in the top seven films in the Bond series. I have seen worse, I just wish it seemed a bit more exciting and brought more to the franchise.
It’s not all Blu
Despite the fact that the story needed some work, the characters needed to be more interesting and effort needed to be given to the production as a whole, the Blu-ray side of this is outstanding. It’s coming to you in 1080p, which looks nearly flawless and shines very well during the ice scenes. As for the audio, it pretty much matches the video, as it supports the theory that action films are best suited for this format. They are very much suited for this format. Perfect stuff.
As for the features, they’re much better than the film and give more life to the film. I really enjoy the concept of features for this particular reason: They can hold up a par to bad film. You get some interesting features with Die Another Day that include featurettes, commentary and a nice interactive guide. These are all good. Here’s a full list:
– “The Complete Special Features Library: Mission Dossier” – Audio Commentary Featuring Director Lee Tamahori and Producer Michael G. Wilson
– Audio Commentary Featuring Pierce Brosnan and Rosamund Pike
– “Declassified: MI6 Vault”
o From Script to Screen
o Shaken and Stirred on Ice
o Just Another Day
o The British Touch: Bond Arrives in London
o On Location With Peter Lamont
– SEARCH CONTENT EXPANDED “007 Mission Control” Interactive Guide Into the World of Die Another Day – REFINISHED IN HD Exotic Locations Featurette
– MI6 DataStream
– “Ministry of Propaganda” Photo gallery
