Screen Vistas: Bond Goes Rogue

Monday, October 29, 2012

BONDATHON: DIE ANOTHER DAY

In 2002, the Bond franchise celebrated it's 40th anniversary with its 20th film, Die Another Day. The film isn't terribly well remembered, in fact it's considered a low point of the franchise that almost destroyed 007 forever. This hate fly's in the face of the fact that it got not terrible reviews and made a boat load of money, begging the question, is Die Another Day really that bad?

The short answer is no. The film is not good. Not good by any means, but it's hardly as unwatchable as say The Man With The Golden Gun and as much as it tries, and good Lord it does try, it's not nearly as outrageous as Moonraker.

Before descending completely into camp, we have an admirably hardcore opening where Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is captured and spends the next fourteen months being tortured in a North Korean prison camp. The torture continues through the opening credits meaning Bond's ultimate punishment is having to listen to Madonna's awful title track. Eventually Bond is traded back only to face suspicion from M (Judi Dench) over what Bond did or did not divulge during his internment. M strips Bond of his Double O status and detains him for further questioning. Backed against the wall, Bond has no choice but to break out and go rogue to clear his name.

Up till here everything is fine. The action is heightened, but not out of line with series norms. Brosnan is a bit hammy when playing dark, but generally okay. The film has adequately set the stage for a darker, more personal adventure. Unfortunately that's not what it delivers and things take a turn around the 50 minute mark as the film decides that it wants to be a goofy, sci-fi cartoon and never looks back.

On the one hand I admire separating the dark and whimsical elements of the franchise into separate segments as they have never played well together. On the other hand the series has never been good at whimsy so having the entire second half of the film be all whimsy turns out to be a pretty fatal move.

Some of it works. The ice palace fortress of super-villain/Richard Branson analogue Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) is a tremendously silly idea, but a visually striking one none the less. Also, I liked that when the bad guys capture Bond late in the film, they figure out that they have to take his laser watch too. Also Halley Barry is fun as Bond's NSA agent sidekick Jinx. Jinx is another one of those female James Bonds from foreign agencies. She has her own gadgets, her own car, and like Bond she can only speak in groan inducing double entendres.

But then there is nearly every other element of the film. For every moment that works, there are entire sequences that fall flat. Let's start with the villain. I wanted to like Graves. He's partially based on everyone's favorite billionaire Richard Branson and partially on Ian Fleming's version of Moonraker baddie Hugo Drax, a character who certainly didn't get his due in the official adaptation and doesn't do much better here.

Take his villainy. In addition to having a derivative super weapon (another laser satellite) Graves also has a terribly unimaginative plan to (spoiler alert) destroy the mine field separating North and South Korea so that the North can invade. This brings up some important questions, 1) Why is he using a super-laser with more destructive power than an atomic bomb to clear a mine field when he can just destroy Seoul, forcing the South to surrender? 2) Are there any satellites in this universe that don't double as giant lasers, and if not, why doesn't the world just outlaw satellites? (end spoiler alert)

That laser leads to the films most infamous scene where Graves, who is controlling the weapon via a robot suit, has the laser chase Bond so that he must kite surf down a melting glacier. Until now the only reason the franchise has sort of gotten away with nutty ideas like this is that we've gotten to see talented stunt men pulling them off. This film robs us of even that pleasure by executing the scene with terrible CGI, with close-ups of Brosnan serving as the only photographic element. It's not that CGI can't produce nail-bitters (just look at the fantastic set-pieces that Pixar has done over the years), but you have to convince the audience that there is a real person in real danger. Even a wacky, cartoon universe should be able to ground it's audience somewhat.

Ultimately though, Die isn't interested in grounding us. It just piles on gimmick after shallow gimmick. DNA treatment centers, dancing lasers and the aforementioned robot suit. Heck, the most plausible element in the film is Bond's invisible car! Yeah, that invisible car that uses tiny camera's to project images onto the other side is actually, theoretically sound. Still, it doesn't matter because watching 007 slowly sneak around Graves's lair in a 4,000lb invisible Aston Martin is one of the most laughable images in the entire film.

The film's laughability isn't helped by the stylistic flourishes imposed by director Lee Tamahori (XXX: State of the Union). The man seems obsessed with step-printing and mock fast motion that hit at seemingly random moments and fly in the face of the formalism that the rest of the film is shot with and just help underline that these films had gone right back to being cartoon parodies of themselves. In a way, this is the cinematic equivalent of a mid-life crisis, artificially big, gaudy and over the top, the film keeps trying to convince us how young this franchise is and fools no one.

Grade: C-

Enjoy these other Bondathon entries:

Dr. No

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball / Never Say Never Again

You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
A View To A Kill
The Living Daylights
Licence To Kill
Goldeneye
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
Skyfall

Thursday, October 11, 2012

BONDATHON: LICENCE TO KILL

Timothy Dalton's second and final outing as James Bond, Licence To Kill deserves some credit, in that it strips away the vast majority of the Bond formula tropes. Unfortunately it simply trades one set of conventions for another. Instead of a Bond film, this is an 80’s cop movie with spies, Lethal Weapon 007 if you will.

The film brings back CIA agent Felix Leiter (David Hedison). Bond’s friend and frequent partner. Felix is doing really well. He’s captured infamous drug lord Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), and he’s getting married. There's a big party, dancing, presents. Felix is on top of the world. It’d be a real shame if Sanchez where to escape, kill Leiter’s wife and feed him to a shark. Bond wouldn't like that. Why, he would swear revenge and go on an all out killing spree.

The cop cliché’s pile up as Bond meets an informant (Carey Lowell) in a strip club (the kind where the girls keep dancing through bar fights). Bond is shocked to discover that his contact is a woman. She scoffs at Bonds assertions that a woman can’t be a cop and makes fun of his Walter PPK. Of course, the cop movie transformation wouldn't be complete without a scene where Bond goes rogue after M (Robert Brown) essentially orders Bond to hand over his gun and his badge. "You're a loose cannon Bond!"

Licence want's you to think that it's darkest, grittiest film in the franchise. But quite frankly it's just as ridiculous as always. The only thing keeping it from the camp of the Roger Moore days is the relentless violence. Apart from the hot cheese of the 80's cop cliche's we have scenes where someone tries to stab Bond with a swordfish, a mack truck that does wheelies while Schwarzeneggerean explosions go off in the distance, and we haven't even gotten to the gadgets.

I half expected that truck to roar

After Bond quits/is fired from the service, Q (Desmond Llewelyn) takes it upon himself to provide Bond with some gadgets that might help him out. They are not his best, the worst is a Polaroid camera that takes X-rays AND shoots lasers at the same time for some reason. I kept waiting to see how Bond would use this insane, ill-conceived gadget during the climax, but sadly he never does.

The idea of Bond going rogue could be an interesting idea. Taking away all of 007's tactical support, and forcing him to fend for himself could be dramatically fascinating. But the thing is that Bond is never on his own in this film. He has Q giving the same tactical support he always has. Consequently I still don't believe that Bond can survive on wits. Sure he applies some Yojimbo like manipulations to Sanchez and his men, but none them are believable. The film asks us to buy that Sanchez doesn't know Bond is his enemy when Bond was there doing most of the work when he was apprehended in the first place. Even if Sanchez never saw Bond (which is a stretch), it's firmly established that Sanchez has moles in Leiter unit who probably saw the whole thing.

The use of Felix Leiter in this film is a bit odd. Ostensibly his inclusion is a way to trade on the mythology of the series, but it can't get that right either. Hedison's casting makes little sense, he played Leiter once before way back in 1973's Live And Let Die where he was as forgettable as most of the actors playing Leiter. If you're trying to build a consistent universe and build the world, why not bring back John Terry who played the role briefly in the last film?

This is a film of lasts in the Bond franchise. Firstly it was the last film for screenwriter Richard Maibaum who wrote or co-wrote the lions share franchise. Secondly it was the last film for title designer Maurice Binder who had grown too ill to continue. Most importantly, this is the last film for Timothy Dalton as Bond. Dalton was scheduled to do a third film but between the low performance of Licence, rights issues with the franchise and the end of the Cold War, it was decided to replace Bond yet again with the next film.

But Dalton would be fine. He’s that rare anomaly, the only actor who’s arguably more known for his post-Bond roles. People of my generation are likely to recognize Dalton for Hot Fuzz, Rocketeer, Toy Story 3, Flash Gordon, Doctor Who, Chuck, and having an awesome British voice long before James Bond. Still, he was a excellent Bond, who's darker energy would eventually provide an important template for the current incarnation. But that said, as dark as these films are, with all the murder and bloodshed, the last image we get in a Dalton Bond is of a giant stone fish winking at the audience.

Grade: C

Enjoy these other Bondathon entries:

Dr. No

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball / Never Say Never Again