20th Bond-movie and the last of Brosnans-movies and basically the last of Classic Bonds. Or maybe Classic Bond is always before the current Bond? Whatever, we start in North Korea as Bond infiltrates the country and leads a helicopter astray with a diamond curier... not another diamond smuggling story! This gonna be bad. Still, he gets in and meets the son of a high ranking general, Moon, that I think gives weapons for diamonds, but they get information that Bond is a British spy so they arrest him and intends to kill him so Bond activates the bomb within the case of diamonds and hunts Moon until he crashes into the sea and apparently dies. Bond gets taken in by the father and is tortured for 14 months, all over Madonna's song Die Another Day. Worst Bond-theme ever.
He's exchanged for Moon's closest ally (who got some of the diamonds lodged into his face after the bomb went off) that got caught after killing three Chinese agents in some peace summit between China and South Korea. He's also believed to have broken down and given information on agents in North Korea so that was why MI6 had to get him out. To clear his name 007 escapes the facility in Hong Kong he been taken too he enters a hotel to get refreshed as well as get information from the Chinese agents running it. They send him to Cuba where diamond face have been going. There he meets a CIA-agent Jinx and enters a clinic that focuses on genetical engineering of rich clients. 007 tries killing diamond face, but fails and only gets some diamonds that are identified as conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, but engraved with Gustaf Graves insignia, a businessman with a diamond mine in Iceland.
Bond confront him in a gentleman club with some fencing action until he's stopped by Graves personal instructor Miranda Frost. He's contacted by M and learns that Frost is an undercover agent tracking Graves so Bond is off to Iceland and Graves Ice Palace where he unveils Icarus, a solar satellite that can give solar energy for crop development all year round. But 007 discovers that he is in fact the genetical engineered Moon that survived the intro of the movie. Bond have him corned but is betrayed by Frost that also was the informant that got him caught in North Korea. And she did all that because Graves made the fencer that won gold medal in an olympics against Frost to default by giving the person steroids. Feels a bit small for betraying your country to a terrorist. Bond and Jinx escape and goes to the Korean border where the Americans and MI6 are stationed. A coup in North Korea where Graves father been overthrown by the nationalist and Graves as they begin using Icarus to level the mine filed and also take away the US nuclear umbrella, enabling North Korea to take over South Korea. Jinx and 007 boards Graves plane, kills Graves and escapes by dropping a helicopter midair from the plane.
Seen by many as the worst in the series and I'm inclined to agree. The effects doesn't look that good, not compared to earlier movies. Might still be the higher quality of the picture overall showing the faults more easily. Music is not that good, and it starts with the gun barrel sequence at the start of the movie with updates to the original theme. I liked it in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but that sounded good (or I prefer that sound would probably be more correct). It's also bit problematic in that it's the 40th anniversary so they look back to the older movies, the plot is inspired by Diamonds Are Forever for example with the diamond smuggling and satellite plot. The Aston Martin is back and we get a whole sequence with the old gadgets. But Bond should try to predict the future and this just defeats the purpose since it's already been done. Also, the North Koreans... yes, they are the only country one could show as evil during 2002 since that wouldn't affect box office numbers, but would they really risk biting the hand of China by killing their agents? China is pretty much the only reason no one does anything against them?
Also the only Bond movie I owned before this collection. Must also add, that this movie had the worst content on how they made the movie. Overall, Brosnan-era wasn't that good. The only one who still would stand up would be GoldenEye since that threat is the only that would still work. All the other fails in some way, this one has North Koreans infuriating China, Tomorrow Never Dies have a Britain that believes they can take on China and The World Is Not Enough is destroyed by the collapse of the oil price after the recession of 2008. At least an EMP against a modern capital still works... but wasn't the microchips from A View to a Kill supposed to neutralise that threat?
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