John McClane returns. This time, he protects a white-hat hacker as they try to deal with a cyber-terrorist who takes over traffic, communications, and utility networks.
This one doesn't have the same buddy cop vibe that Die Hard With a Vengeance had. But this one is much more pleasing. The guy that McClane has following him around is surprisingly likable, and there's a nice odd couple feeling going on. None of the racial elements of the 3rd one, they've been replaced with a generation gap.
There was a strong sense of terror during the 3rd one, when the subway station is taken out. In this case, this movie almost exclusively uses moments like that. The prospect of losing all utilities, and not being able to communicate is much more serious.
In contrast though, the action seems campier than before. As is shown in the trailer, he uses a car to jump a ramp, hitting a helicopter. This is just hilarious, and it's hard to take that kind of action seriously. There's a sequence near the end, when he's driving a truck and trying to deal with an airplane that's shooting at him. That's even sillier.
The villain is a little more interesting. He seems less comfortable. Even though he's confident in his plan, his mannerisms seem a little strange.
I want to point one thing out - and this is a spoiler. McClane beats the villain by taking the gun being held to his chest, and shooting through his own shoulder to hit the villain. This is very similar to how Darth Vader beat Darth Maul in one of the Star Wars comics.
One other minor detail. Something about the lighting in this movie really looks artificial to me. It isn't constant, but the light reflected off Bruce Willis's head doesn't look right.
No comments:
Post a Comment