Why all the hate for "Die Another Day"?

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Wow, I never heard very many bad comments about Die Another Day until all of a sudden checking out this forum tonight.

It is one of my favorite Bond movies ever, behind GoldenEye for sure, and close to, or tied with The World Is Not Enough...

And most James Bond fans that I've talked to agreed with me, some even said it was their favorite Bond of all time...

I just don't get it...

what?!

 

[skruloos]

Wow, I never heard very many bad comments about Die Another Day until all of a sudden checking out this forum tonight.

It is one of my favorite Bond movies ever, behind GoldenEye for sure, and close to, or tied with The World Is Not Enough...

And most James Bond fans that I've talked to agreed with me, some even said it was their favorite Bond of all time...

I just don't get it...

what?!

While I don't think it's one of the best Bond movies by any stretch of the imagination, I do think that it plays almost as a culmination of Bond styles. It has a bit more of the intrigue of a Connery movie like Dr. No or From Russia with Love and a bit of the comedy in Live and Let Die, with some of the science fiction of something like Moonraker, and even a bit of Tomorrow Never Dies. And I absolutely love all the easter eggs and references to the other movies.

 

[James"007"Bond]

DAD had such great potential but it just flopped after Bond was released from the prison camp.

 

[November Rain]

ahaha, die another day was teh equivalent to terminator 3, just trying to rehash the franchise with too many cliche moments and with the use of a poor story...

personally i don't understand why anyone would put any of brosnan's films in their top three let alone the majority of them...

yuck..

he plays a much better thomas crown then a bond...

 

[TheFalcon]

I've only seen DAD once, but that was more than enough. I think it went to over the top with Bond's gadgets (invisible car?!?) and stunts (hanglidersurfer). The villain wasn't that good and the story wasn't very good or exciting either. Also a lot of effects looked really bad and the song didn't fit a Bond movie either IMO.

And I hated the virtual reality moment with Moneypenny. It looked like it was gonna be a cool setup with someone breaking in to MI6, but it was just to show Moneypenny kiss Bond.

There's just a lot of things that didn't work in a Bond movie. It was like they tried to make a modern "cool" action like XXX or something and then named one of the characters James Bond.

Some things worked and I liked some of the hints to the other movies but all together it wasn't a very good Bond movie. It was an okay action movie, though.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Wow, I never heard very many bad comments about Die Another Day until all of a sudden checking out this forum tonight.

It is one of my favorite Bond movies ever, behind GoldenEye for sure, and close to, or tied with The World Is Not Enough...

And most James Bond fans that I've talked to agreed with me, some even said it was their favorite Bond of all time...

I just don't get it...

what?!

Because it's crap.

Half the time it's trying to force in 'cool' camera tricks and mess with the Bond traditions just for the sake of being different (bullet in the opening gun barrel, Bond gets captured, Bond with beard), the rest it's pure saturday morning cartoon, with invisible cars and RoboCop armour shooting purple lightening. Halle Berry is forced in just for the sake of a Jinx franchise which never materialised, the action scenes are lame - it's just a pathetic film.

 

[Catman]

To give DAD credit it did have great potential. Bond as a prisoner was incredible! If they would have focused a lot more on that instead of rushing it during the opening credits I think this would have been top 10 for sure. But, the director wanted to spend more time on the invisible car. Thats what ruined it.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Well, I guess I'll just have to agree to disagree, seeing as all the things you guys hated, I liked. I thought it was a great Bond flick.

 

[Everyman]

DAD is NOT a Bond movie, it isn't even a movie. It's a videogame demo. Brosnan looks tired as Bond and has a beer gut after spending a year and a half in a North Korean jail, classic characters behave out-of-character, one Bond girl is stupid and annoying and is a gimmick, the other one is stupid, annoying, has flimsy motivations (she betrayed her country for a gold medal?) and is a Bond-lolita, the villain is weak, absolutely and stupid and could have been dealt with a good spanking, there are too much sci-fi elements, there are nos tunts but only stupid CGIs, the plot is a rehash of DAF (the worst Connery-Bond), there is a bullet-time effect in the gunbarrel sequence, Moneypenny and Bond kiss (even in virtual reality, that's unforgiveable), etc, etc, etc. It's an awful film, and the worst Bond of the whole franchise.

 

[skruloos]

DAD is NOT a Bond movie, it isn't even a movie. It's a videogame demo. Brosnan looks tired as Bond and has a beer gut after spending a year and a half in a North Korean jail,

Not any worse than Connery in DAF or an aged Moore in A View to a Kill.

classic characters behave out-of-character, one Bond girl is stupid and annoying and is a gimmick, the other one is stupid, annoying, has flimsy motivations (she betrayed her country for a gold medal?) and is a Bond-lolita

Bond girls have had a lot of range. These characters simply fall within those ranges.

Yes. Die Another Day wasn't all that great. But it's not like every Bond film has been sparkling. Sci Fi? Bad effects? Sounds like Moonraker. Unnecessary comedic moments? I can name numerous moments in a bunch of Bond movies. But whatever. To each his own.

 

[Everyman]

Not any worse than Connery in DAF or an aged Moore in A View to a Kill.


Bond girls have had a lot of range. These characters simply fall within those ranges.

Yes. Die Another Day wasn't all that great. But it's not like every Bond film has been sparkling. Sci Fi? Bad effects? Sounds like Moonraker. Unnecessary comedic moments? I can name numerous moments in a bunch of Bond movies. But whatever. To each his own.

Well, that shows where DAD stands int he series, doesn,t it? It has the same flaws of the worst Bond movies (they made the same mistakes of the worst of the series, as if they didn't learn anything!), and a few flaws of its own (CGI). Yes, there some very bad Bond movies, but DAD not only is the worst in its flaws, it has no redeeming qualities.

 

[deathshead2]

Becasue Brosnan is the worst bond ever thats why.

 

[skruloos]

Yes, there some very bad Bond movies, but DAD not only is the worst in its flaws, it has no redeeming qualities.

I wouldn't go that far. Miranda Frost was hot. The opening is great. Anything Pre-Iceland is great in the movie and plays a bit like Thunderball meets Dr. No. The Aston Martin was great. All the references to the previous Bond films were great. The music referencing different Bond movie themes was good, particularly the use of the You Only Live Twice theme at the end.

 

[skruloos]

Becasue Brosnan is the worst bond ever thats why.

Except that he's not. But...to each his own.

 

[deathshead2]

Except that he's not. But...to each his own.

I dont know his movies are bad and he doesn't have that bondness to him but yeah to each his own.

 

[Everyman]

Except that he's not. But...to each his own.

He was a pretty strong Bond, but like ALL the Bond before him, he left on a bad (very bad) note.

 

[Everyman]

I wouldn't go that far. Miranda Frost was hot. The opening is great. Anything Pre-Iceland is great in the movie and plays a bit like Thunderball meets Dr. No. The Aston Martin was great. All the references to the previous Bond films were great. The music referencing different Bond movie themes was good, particularly the use of the You Only Live Twice theme at the end.

Miranda Frost was beautiful, I'll give you that. But hot? She sure is young, but that,s it. Way too young for Brosnan (again, they repeated the mistakes they did in A View to a Kill), who looked like bedding his daughter's best friend. Rosamund Pike was utterly unconvincing as a secret agent. The overabundance of sci-fi elements, of CGI and the characters acting out-of-character were ALL present before the time in Iceland. As was the overlong and ridiculous swordfight. And the INVISIBLE Aston Martin great? The invisibility was a joke! The references to previous Bond movies were overused, and the ending was blah, we had Bond fighting a spoiled brat with electric toys and a catfight between a very unconvincing female-superspy-Bond-equivalent and a beginner spy who betrayed her country for a gold medal.

 

[Catman]

I don't consider DAD the worst Bond film. I think Live & Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, Moonraker, and The Living Daylights were worse. Yeah, I just turned into Kevin and lost some respect for saying that but its how I feel.

You see. . .DAD actually had potential. I really, really, really loved the prisoner scenes. They should have focused more on that. Hopefully someone will one day discover the raw footage and re-edit the film. I mean, yeah, the film was bad, but it atleast had that great moment. Everything from the teaser till he arrives in Cuba was great. The rest was crap of course.

 

[Everyman]

I don't consider DAD the worst Bond film. I think Live & Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, Moonraker, and The Living Daylights were worse. Yeah, I just turned into Kevin and lost some respect for saying that but its how I feel.

You see. . .DAD actually had potential. I really, really, really loved the prisoner scenes. They should have focused more on that. Hopefully someone will one day discover the raw footage and re-edit the film. I mean, yeah, the film was bad, but it atleast had that great moment. Everything from the teaser till he arrives in Cuba was great. The rest was crap of course.

All the other Bond films mentionned above had their flaws, some really serious ones, some were very bad (MWTGG and Moonraker especially) but they did have a few qualities. The Living Daylight had a relatively good scenario (and it's coming from a fan who never like TLD or Dalton's take as Bond) and TMWTGG had Christopher Lee as a psycho murderer. These are hardly redeeming qualities, but still, they are qualities that were left in the final product.

Potential leads to nothing if you don,t build on it. Re-editing DAD will not change the tone of the movie, neither would it change the stupid invisible car, all the stupid sci-fi elements, the awful acting of practically everybody, the schizophrenic behavior of M and the whole MI6 towards Bond, or the sudden incompetence of MI6 (and Bond's own incompetence for that matter), it won't change the fact that graves is the weakest Bond villain bare none (even the very weak villains in TLD were a bit better). To make something good of DAD, you would need to destroy everything that comes after the opening credits, or nearly, and get rid of the bulletime effect in the gunbarrel sequences. And then rewrite what happens afterwards, reshoot the whole movie, do some serious recasting (and eliminate/modifie some characters entirely, such as Jinx and Graves), etc. And then maybe, MAYBE, you would get a decent Bond film out of it.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Whoa, now it's Man With The Golden Gun also?!

Holy Jesus man, that's another one of my favorites!

le sigh

 

[Iceman]

I've got no problem with Die Another Day. I don't see why this film would be viewed as any worse than other films in the franchise.

 

[~†~§iX~†~]

Whoa, now it's Man With The Golden Gun also?!

Holy Jesus man, that's another one of my favorites!

le sigh

TMWTGG is a real special case. It is one of the weaker Bond films. The plot is instantly dated by the energy crisis and it leaves the question of how could someone as inept as Mary Goodnight ever become a member of the British Secret Service?

However, it has a couple of the best locales of a Bond movie (Especially up until then) plus what makes the movie: Christopher Lee and his chemistry with Roger Moore. There are many better Bnd films than this, but this is the only one that has these two as great rivals. I'd say TMWTGG is a few steps above a guilty pleasure but falls short of a great Bond film.

As for my view on DAD, I already posted it in the action sequences thread before I saw this one!......

 

[Catman]

Whoa, now it's Man With The Golden Gun also?!

Holy Jesus man, that's another one of my favorites!

le sigh

The Man With The Golden Gun was garbage, dude. The only thing I liked about it was the henchman. You know. . .the little dude from Fantasy Island. lol.

 

[Everyman]

I've got no problem with Die Another Day. I don't see why this film would be viewed as any worse than other films in the franchise.

See the numerous comments above...

 

[Kevin Roegele]

DAD is NOT a Bond movie, it isn't even a movie. It's a videogame demo. Brosnan looks tired as Bond and has a beer gut after spending a year and a half in a North Korean jail, classic characters behave out-of-character, one Bond girl is stupid and annoying and is a gimmick, the other one is stupid, annoying, has flimsy motivations (she betrayed her country for a gold medal?) and is a Bond-lolita, the villain is weak, absolutely and stupid and could have been dealt with a good spanking, there are too much sci-fi elements, there are nos tunts but only stupid CGIs, the plot is a rehash of DAF (the worst Connery-Bond), there is a bullet-time effect in the gunbarrel sequence, Moneypenny and Bond kiss (even in virtual reality, that's unforgiveable), etc, etc, etc. It's an awful film, and the worst Bond of the whole franchise.