James Bond 007: Die Another Day(Meurs un autre jour)

James Bond 007: Die Another Day Meurs un autre jour
Cinema Release Date: November 20, 2002
Film already available on DVD since: October 31, 2008
Directed by Lee Tamahori
With Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens
Original title: Die Another Day
Feature film, U.S., UK. Genre: Espionage, Action
Time: 02h14min Production Year: 2002
Distributor: UFD

*** SPECIFICATIONS *** James Bond Series

134 min
Director: Lee Tamahori
Producer: Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson
Budget: $ 142 million

Cast: Pierce Brosnan (Bond 007) Halle Berry (NSA agent Jinx), Toby Stephens (Gustav Graves), Rosamund Pike (Miranda Frost), Rick Yune (Zao), Will Yun Lee (Colonel Moon North Korea) Michael Madsen (NSA agent Falco), Judi Dench (M), Samantha Bond (Miss Moneypenny), John Cleese (Q)

Screenplay: Robert Wade and Neal Purvis and Dana Stevens
Special Effects: Chris Corbould
Stunts: Vic Armstrong
Music: David Arnold
Generic music: Natacha Atlas
Photography: David Tattersall

Preview this movie is a paradox in itself: he has this wild side persistent since the arrival of Pierce Brosnan, but also a certain vulnerability in the character of Bond, a fragile humanity ... ... It's new under the Pierce Brosnan era (there was of it at Timothy Dalton in the late '80s), it's nice and it announced a partial return to basics "flemingiennes. His return will be fully realized with Casino Royale, the latest James Bond to date. But overall, this episode suffers from being too far away  in terms of gadgets: a bionic armor ... a laser beam from the cosmos ... a car invisible ... it is enough! What makes this episode is not up to Casino Royale ... even if its first half hour is a big gun ...

It is conducted in North Korea by James Bond and two of his men, who are compromised by an unidentified traitor. Follows a chase in hovercraft during which the North Korean Colonel Moon is killed and his lieutenant, Zao, was seriously injured. James Bond is in turn captured, tortured and thrown into military prison. After several months of detention, he is released during an exchange of prisoners held by Falco, director of the National Security Agency. Removed from office, former secret agent is determined to find Zao and unmask the traitor who caused his downfall. This led him to meet the beautiful and mysterious Jinx, the NSA agent and Gustav Graves, a megalomaniac owner of a sumptuous palace of ice Icelandic and a weapon of unexpected power. With the right arm of Gustav Graves, North Korea offered a fairly chilly in the 7th Western Art, for once she is on screen ....

The first half hour of the film is a very high standard with a waterfall pre-generic very credible while amazing, a generic version of Madonna of good quality, although a little too electro-dance for my taste, then sequence where James Bond is tortured and held prisoner in the middle of Stalinist North Korea. This mouthing sets the bar high, with a universe before recalling the time Casino Royale. Except that this quality is not maintained as it is throughout excellent Casino Royale. There is still a touch of cocktail that makes the success of Casino Royale: 007 vulnerability, charismatic enemies, some outrageous stunts while being credible (I say "few" because in Casino Royale all are credible), the "James Bond girl "of great beauty ...  But what bothers me a lot in Die Another Day is the introduction too slow and too late, in which he would have been better to introduce it at the outset to make it more impressive to eye of the beholder.

The "boss" of the film, the crazy megalomaniac Gustav Graves, who appears under the guise of the Western way was too late in the film, which I think was far more credible before its tranformation by DNA. At that time, he was the lieutenant of the North Korean army, and son of Colonel Moon!

Another problem in this action scene is that everything seems too big. For example, the sequence of the baston under a barrage of lasers "cutters" which not only fails to reach 007. It should be logically distracted, because it was busy fighting with bare hands against a guard. Other action sequences are far too sophisticated like the fight between 007 and Zao in the Cuban hospital: Bond comes to targeting a magnetic switch with a bottle full swing ... too much momentum ... and now all the instruments of Medicine flying through the air to be pressed against a metal wall ... a little bigger. But next to the World is not enough there are fewer this profusion of gadgets, although the convertible is Zao’s task with its missiles, grenades, mines weapons ... which would kill a regiment.

There are successes: the chase by hovercraft, the extravagant decor of the palace of ice, the ice palace in full cast, in which 007 rushes with his car to deliver Halle Berry and so on. When Bond received at the palace of ice cold Miranda Frost, MI-6 agent, and that it is launching "an ice palace ... you should feel at home" (she had earlier refused the advances of 007). There is also the chase on ice in large cars, fencing and fighting with swords, collaboration between the MI-6 and the NSA, the plastic Halle Berry, the coldness of Miranda Frost. What makes my opinion of this "james bond" is average. What a pity indeed that this vulnerability and the more human side of 007 in the first half hour to dissipate as the film progresses and gives way to the "fifth man": the gadget!