What Went Wrong With James Bond's Die Another Day

Exactly. Seriously.

Yes. Even Moonraker held that that title for a bit. It doesn't make it a masterpiece....

I too liked it but agree the second half couldve been better. I think part of is downfall is that it has such a great build up but then it lets down. I especially like Toby in it.

It vies for the bottom spot on the worst Bond films list.

Well said. Unfortunately seem people don't seem to understand what an actual "Bond film" is these days.

Yes, the invisible car was probably a bit much, and the cgi surfing was almost anti-Bond compared against the majesty of some of the real stunts done in the Moore era, but this is way more a Bond film than anything which has followed for all the reasons you mentioned 👍

Well...

12 - That's a nitpick. It was clearly somebody just throwing money around, sure, but not a big deal...in and of itself. It does speak to a larger problem, though: overblown, over-budgeted, and trying too hard.
11 - Yeah, I can't argue. Not a big fan of the theme song, but the North Korea action scene and Bond's capture and torture are pretty ballsy moves for a Bond picture. "Threw it away years ago!" - great line delivery there.
10 - I didn't even remember him until I saw the list.
9 - The whole character of Jinx was embarrassing. It was like one of those TV series episodes where they're trying to launch another series and "piggyback" the cast of that show onto the other (popular) one. The main cast takes a backseat so they can be impressed by the "awesome" new characters, who the audience is supposed to follow over into show number 2. It sucks. It's like having a movie/episode-long product placement. "Look at this...isn't this coooooool? Don't you want to buuuuuy it?" No, I don't. Having a character match Bond in Bond is bad. It sucked. The character was bad. Oh, and Berry's performance was bad. I'm not a fan of Halle Berry in general, but she has hit "okay". Not here. This whole thing really rubbed some stink over the whole movie and I think this is one of the biggest reasons the film as a whole winds up tainted.
8 - Not really. But, like number 12, it's part of this whole thing the movie has where it's just pushing so hard all the time. It almost never feels natural. I'll give it this, though: the spy car fight was a BOSS action scene...
7 - Uh...yes. But, it is mercifully small.
6 - Sure. And?
5 - He wasn't bad. He never felt like he could get the better of Bond, though. Llewelyn managed to give off a vibe of a schoolmaster who could actually make Bond shut up once in awhile. But, yeah, Cleese was okay.

(cont.)

4 - This is all related to the car and the CGI gun thing: it's too much. The movie knows it's an anniversary film and keeps trying. It was like Spectre with Blofeld. I felt like that movie knew Blofeld was a big deal and kept saying, "This is a big deal," and the whole time I'm sitting around thinking, "Don't *tell* me it's big, *show* me." Die Another Day's second biggest problem is that it tried too hard and pushed around CGI and "big" set pieces without knowing why or having any heart or soul in them. So they never felt legitimately cool or organic.
3 - Disagree. Pike was awesome and nailed it and her work here actually convinced me that she was underused, criminally, after the fact. I know she does do regular work, but she was sexy and dangerous and a great Bond girl.
2 - Wah, wah. This isn't whitewashing. This is a character using plastic surgery for a plot twist. The film does everything in its power (to the point of obnoxiousness) to make you think the leading lady is just the coolest and they cast a black woman. The deadliest villain of the piece is played throughout by Rick Yune. He was far more memorable than Graves, anyway. Cry me a river, I'll play the world's smallest violin.
1 - I don't remember it.

Bottom line: the movie has a great opener, a lot of promise, and slowly leeches it out with pushing a new character on the audience (in the hopes of starting a CIA/Jinx spin-off series) and insisting that everything be bigger and cooler to celebrate the anniversary and that they have a huge budget. So...really it's two different forms of pushiness. But that car fight...

I'd rank it midline in my Bonds.

My favourite Brosnan is still The World Is Not Enough, which is super underrated.