Rating- * * * (3/5)
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So goes the age old adage that has proven to be true for so many generations. If only the folks behind Die Another Day would have heeded this wisdom, perhaps we would all have been spared the pain of watching the cinema’s greatest franchise make a fool of itself. The James Bond series is the oldest, longest running and most successful series of films in the history of cinema and for good reason; Bond movies are everything a movie should be, nothing more and nothing less. They may have seemed a bit formulaic at times but that sin is forgivable since the formula is a good one: Bond is a suave secret agent who saves the world from evil madmen bent on destruction and gets a few girls along the way. There is also typically a girl who seems bad but is actually good, and another who seems good but is actually bad. This is a simple formula that has satisfied audiences for decades and in my opinion the most recent installments that feature Pierce Brosnan as Agent 007 (Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and my personal favorite, The World Is Not Enough) have all been particularly well done and extremely entertaining films. The pre-opening buzz on this latest installment was that it was above and beyond the rest of the Bond films; this was going to redefine the series. You can tell by that very statement that the filmmakers had ambitions beyond the traditional Bond fare. The story is basic enough: Bond opens the film by spoiling an illegal diamonds-for weapons deal between a North Korean military splinter cell and an unknown European source. Bond’s attempt ends in his capture by the North Koreans, leading us to our first unusual Bond experience. The credit sequence, as usual, features a celebrity-sung theme song and some psychedelic visuals, but in the background we are shown a montage of scenes that show Bond being tortured by the North Koreans for information. This is the first time that the famous credit sequence has actually advanced the storyline rather than just give you something to look at and listen to until the credits are over. It’s obvious at this point that the filmmakers were, indeed, trying to transcend the typical Bond formula. I won’t reveal too much of the storyline because it would ruin any fun that this movie holds but it basically involves Bond trying to get to the bottom of the illegal diamond ring and hunt down the man that organized his capture. Along the way, Bond meets an American NSA agent named Jinx (Halle Berry), a wealthy British entrepreneur (), and a beautiful undercover MI-6 agent named Miranda Frost (). The story leads us through an unusual amount of identity swapping and intrigue for a Bond movie and eventually to a decent, although slightly implausible (even for a Bond film) action sequence in an Arctic ice palace. Just when we think its all over after a huge special-effects fiasco in the North Pole, we are flung back into the action when we learn that the threat is not over and Bond must stop a threat on an in-flight cargo plane. This is the first huge flaw in the film in that the audience anticipation is built up for the big Arctic meltdown and then, as if the filmmakers realized that the Arctic scene didn’t work as a climax, we are expected to get back up for the big airplane fight scene, which by the way has been done before (Air Force One, Passenger 57, and a classic episode of The X-Files). Another problem with the action sequences is their over-use of computer animation. Movies like Harry Potter, Spiderman and the Star Wars prequels have made directors comfortable with replacing stuntmen with computer generated characters. This is a major error, firstly because any idiot who’s seen more than three movies can tell when it’s not a real person on the screen; the motion of these CG characters is not yet realistic enough to be believable. Secondly, using CG takes away our suspended disbelief from the film by allowing the filmmakers to do things that we know are impossible with the actors. When we see stunt people jumping off bridges or snowboarding away from an avalanche, we may know in real life that the actors couldn’t do it but the images on the screen keep our minds from thinking about that and we remain engrossed in the movie. But when we see Halle Berry dive off a 500 foot cliff without blinking an eye or Pierce Brosnan surfing a title wave while holding on to a parachute to keep him up we immediately become suspicious because we know what we are seeing is a fabrication. It takes us out of the movie and makes us think how good the effects are instead of how amazing the stunt was. I respect the director for attempting to break out of the mold of the Bond films. Too many films today try only to fit formulas and it is usually a noble thing to try and move away from the same old song and dance. But when you are dealing with a formula that has worked for close to half a century and one that moviegoers hold a special place for in their hearts, it is always best to use your creativity within the formula rather than going outside of it. I must reluctantly give a “no go” for this film because I feel like it doesn’t live up to the incredibly high standard set by the last three Bond films in terms of entertainment value, action and excitement. Pierce Brosnan has agreed to do at least one more Bond film (at the current rate he’s moving about one every three years) and I sincerely hope that his next one will be back on pace with the rest of this great series.