| "Die Another Day", the 20th cinematic epic in the 40 year-old ongoing adventures of ultra-suave superspy James Bond takes the sleuth to giddy heights he hasn't reached since Roger Moore's take on the character in "Octopussy" twenty years ago . Pierce Brosnan is perhaps the best of the five actors to take on the role, but it had been felt by many that he had yet even with GoldenEye, the 90's classic that even fans today judge each new film against to find the perfect script that would put him in his most memorable adventure yet. Luckily, with Kiwi director <more> Lee Tamahori "Once Were Warriors", "Along Came a Spider" at the helm, James Bond returns in a film that shakes up the system but keeps the all-too-familiar elements that we have come to love.Pierce Brosnan as James Bond: When watching "Die Another Day", you won't be comparing Irishman Brosnan to Sean Connery or Roger Moore. With this, his fourth performance as James Bond, Brosnan takes full command of the role. He wisely takes the character to new depths such as Bond's 14 month capture and torture in a North Korean military prison without becoming melodramatic or too overly emotional. He remains true to the character and as audience-pleasing as any post-Connery actor can get without feeling like he's trying to imitate Connery's suaveness and cruelty or Roger Moore's comedy and constant winking at the audience. With Tamahori's help, he emotionally develops the character in the ways that Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby failed and still remains the all-knowing James Bond you know and love. Bond is a human in this film and not a superhero.Halle Berry as Jinx Johnson: With Halle Berry's introduction to James Bond comes perhaps the film's most controversial mixed-bag. With her entrance in the film a homage to the bikini-clad beach entrance of Ursula Andress in "Dr. No" , she enters the high-style history of the Bond Girls - but in a good way? Berry is perhaps the most exotic beauty of the recent Bond Girls - and that helps; but her character is plagued with some terrible and cringe-worthy dialogue "Yo Mama!", "Read this, bitch!", etc. . The street-smart aspects of her character that are meant to seperate her from the purely British Miranda Frost Rosamund Pike seem undefensively trashy in the film when Bond Girls are meant to represent an unattainable amount of style and glamour. Berry's first scenes in Cuba are chock full of the feminine glamour and clever dialogue; but when we meet her again in Iceland, the almost trashy street-smart aspects of her character appear. It's one thing to have an independent female spy in her character as has been done right with the female leads in "The Spy Who Loved Me", "Moonraker", and "Tomorrow Never Dies" , but it is another and more disappointing thing for Berry's character to have been taken in the direction that she has. It's a shame this happened to Berry. And what is with her name? The character was originally written as Jinx Jordan; a far more exotic name. But shouldn't we have guessed that "Johnson" would be used eventually?Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves: With four Bond films under his belt, it's a shame that Brosnan has only had one truly satisfying villian Sean Bean in "GoldenEye" . Luckily for us, the producers have cast a great villian in Toby Stephens. Stephens starts the film as the classic Bond villian; a mysterious billionaire who's bent on holding the world for ransom. Only at the end of the second act do we come to find out that Gustav Graves is not all he appears to be. Stephens is perfect at capturing the public sneer and arrogance of a British billionaire who appears to be "Public Friend #1" but reaching an intensity in his eyes in only a matter of seconds. Tamahori not only gave us an exciting action sequence in the sword fight at the Blades Gentleman's Club in the middle of the film; he gave us a multi-level character study of Graves in the face of losing How far will this character go to win? . Eventually, the layers begin to fade away and we begin to see that Gustav Graves is on the edge of insanity. The scene where he shoots his father aboard the Antonov is particularly revealing in the lack of emotion he shows. Great acting from Stephens, who I hope will go down in the books as one of the classic Bond villains.Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost: Where Halle Berry's character was very unappealing and uninteresting in personality, Rosamund Pike's character, MI6 agent Miranda Frost, is the opposite: a sexy, smart, and well-spoken character. The only negative aspect of Miranda Frost is her small amount of screentime. For such an interesting and important character to the story, she is given surprisingly little presence in the film which unfortunately makes her fight with Jinx at the end not as climactic as it could have been. Though she's no Xenia Onnatop or Fiona Volpe, Pike holds her own as a Bond Girl.Rick Yune as Zao: After several films with disappointing and unmemorable henchmen, the producers and writers have given us a great villian in Zao. An interesting visual image in the tradition of Odd Job, Jaws, or the often-forgotten Red Grant, Zao becomes a truly important character to the film without being overplayed. He appears to have a brother-like relationship with the main villain of the film and is, for a change, an interesting character behind the horribly disfigured face.The Supporting Cast - Judi Dench, John Cleese, and Samantha Bond: The supporting cast all provide great performances and work expertly with their well-written dialogue. Judi Dench expands on her character from the emotionally-charged situation we found her in in the last film and provides an extension of the ball-busting boss kind of relationship that she and 007 had in "GoldenEye". John Cleese steps up to the role of Q with confidence and wit, leaping away from the buffoonery he was written in "The World is Not Enough". Samantha Bond is terrific as always, giving us a witty and clever Miss Moneypenny and taking the character in a completely new direction with her limited amount of screentime.Screenplay by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade: After the emotional and complex story that Neil Purvis and Robert Wade developed for "The World is Not Enough", it is not a surprise that they were given a chance to write the screenplay for "Die Another Day". Though the team is great at crafting great stories and situations, they had a miss in the character of Jinx Johnson. Where all of the other new characters in the story are interesting and complex without being melodramatic or cheesy, Jinx Johnson is both. She is given weak and cringe-worthy dialogue. It is a shame for the character and the film that Bruce Fierstein was not given a chance to polish the dialogue between Jinx and Bond as he had with the film before. The writers, however, are great at giving us a Bond that is the best of both the Fleming and film incarnations. While not quite the sparkling dialogue of "Thunderball" or "GoldenEye", it works. The subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle references to the past 20 films are a treat. Should they be invited back to write the next film, I'll have full faith that they will give us a good story. However, I have one minor complaint; and that is that the caper is basically a repeat of the "hold the world for ransom" threat that Blofeld devised in "Diamonds are Forever". It's a shame that they couldn't have come up with a better caper for such an interesting villain. Could we maybe have Fierstein back for the next film, if only to polish the dialogue?Editing by Christian Wagner: One of the more controversial aspects of "Die Another Day" is the very modern style of cutting employed by editor Christian Wagner; something that has drawn much criticism from the fans who favor the more traditional style in a Bond film. For me, the speed-up/slow-down style of editing used in some of the action scenes works as a great advantage to the film. Often times, the editing technique that is a typical trait of Christian Wagner's work wakes up the audience in a fight scene or a dramatic change of location the transition from M's office to Iceland, for example . This is the modern style of cutting action films; and while it may not be as unique as Peter Hunt who pioneered the editing styles of action films in the early Bond films, it is the way things are done today. I would rather have dramatic and hyper-active editing with fast and exciting action such as this than the dull and worn-out editing by Jim Clark in "The World is Not Enough".Photography and Production Design: Director of Photography David Tattersall "Star Wars: Episode II", "Vertical Limit" gives us one of the most incredibly-filmed entries in the series and puts great locations like Spain doubling for Cuba and Iceland to terrific use on film. My only complaint is that the producers seem to find it easier to double for locations than actually go to them. Coastal Spain stands in greatly for Cuba and if I didn't know about it, I probably would never have noticed . Much to Tattersall and Tamahori's credit, it seems like they have thrown all of the effort they have into making the locations feel like they really are North Korea or Hong Kong. Unfortunately, however, the scene where Brosnan appears at the "Hong Kong Yaht Club" with the harbor behind him looks almost obviously green-screen. Production Designer Peter Lamont "Titanic", "True Lies" has suceeded in creating some terrific sets for the film, most notably in Gustav Grave's Ice Palace lair in Iceland. Also a notable success in the set design is Col. Moon's North Korean base that appears in the opening scene in the film. Lamont and Tattersall together provide a great and glamorous atmosphere for "Die Another Day" that is rarely felt in a Bond film. Without the expert handling of both, the locations and sets never would have seamlessly blended together as well as they have and the credibility would have been lost as with "The World is Not Enough" .Title Sequence by Danny Klienmann: The visuals of the title sequence by Danny Klienmann are absolutely terrific. Kudos to him for taking a risk an <less> |
