Plot: When his top-secret mission is sabotaged, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) finds himself captured by the enemy, abandoned by MI6 and stripped of his 00-license. Determined to get revenge, Bond goes head-to-head with a sultry spy (Halle Berry), a frosty agent (Rosamund Pike) and a shadowy billionaire (Toby Stephens) whose business is diamonds...but whose secret is a diabolical weapon that could bring the world to its knees!
Firsts: Bullet coming at you in gun barrel sequence, story being told during opening credit sequence, singer of Bond theme having a role in the film
Gadgets: Surfboard with stowaway weapons, wristwatches with lasers and detonation devices, fully loaded Aston Martin with invisibility, ring with sonic agitation
Girls Bond slept with: Jinx and Miranda Frost
Elaborate murder attempt that Bond escapes: Chased by a laser harnessing the sun's power
Personal review: This is a very polarizing film, which may be appropriate given the large role ice plays in the film. Get it, polar, ice. Oh never mind. Anyways, in what would turn out to be Brosnan's last film as 007, there is a lot to like about this entry, but also a lot cringe-worthy aspects as well.
I really dug the opening sequence and the concept of Bond getting caught and tortured. It made the character a bit more falliable without ruining his credibility or reputation. Associated with that, even though it was far-fetched, the whole gene therapy to give the primary villain a true extreme makeover worked for me. It was just over-the-top to work in the Bond universe, plus it provided an added level of animosity between Bond and Moon/Graves that typically isn't found in these films. All of the scenes in Cuba were fun and did a nice job of calling back to older Bond films. Finally, Graves' ice palace was a great addition in the pantheon of classic Bond villain lairs.
In general, this is another action-packed adventure that is enjoyable to watch. However, as I said there are a few things that really drop the film a few notches. First off, I cannot stand the Jinx character. There was no reason to try and create a female Bond. The one-liners and bad-assery just don't work coming from Berry. It may be misogynist of me, but the Bond girls should remain eye candy and as damsels in distress to me. Unless, they're a villainous Bond girl, like Rosamund Pike's Miranda Frost, who I thought was awesome in this film. Sexy and evil in one little package. But back to Jinx, for a second; as sad as I was to see Brosnan leave before I thought he was done as Bond, if it meant putting the kibosh on the rumored Jinx spin-off movies, then I'm glad he chose to hang it up.
Now I mentioned before about the gene therapy being a bit over-the-top, but it's nothing compared to some of the gadgets and stunts in this film. First, there's the invisible car. Now I'm not as critical as some are of it, but it is pretty ridiculous. Still, I can only imagine how people in the 60s reacted to Bond's ejector seat car in Goldfinger. So maybe we shouldn't be too critical of that. The worse offender though is the chase scene with the Icarus laser that ends with Bond turning a jet car into a parasail. Bond has done some extreme stunts before, but this one was not only over-the-top but also looked really bad from a visual standpoint. Take for instance, the scene in Goldeneye where leaps off the cliff and somehow freefalls into the plane. Completely ridiculous, but it was filmed in a way to make it look like it actually happened. Compared to this parasailing scene which looks completely computer generated and phony.
Speaking of the look of the film, I was not fond of Lee Tamohori's direction as all. It seemed like he tried to infuse a Matrix-style of filmmaking into this movie and it just didn't work at all. Shots like the one with Zao (who by the way looked awesome with his 'world's most expensive acne') flipping his jacket in slow-motion as he prepares to torture Jinx was just silly and unnecessary.
In the end, this film really tried to merge old-school Bond with modern filmmaking and it ended up clashing instead of coming together harmoniously. There is enough fun and action in here to not call this a bad Bond film, but there are too many unlikeable aspects in it to consider it one of the best entries either. This one isn't as insulting as The World is Not Enough, but falls below Brosnan first two attempts. 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment