Terrible as part of the Die Hard franchise but still decent enough as an action flick.

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3

Do people still really care about the Die Hard franchise after the previous installment "Live Free or Die Hard"? I really don't think so. I pretty much gave "Live Free or Die Hard" still a pass, since it was a competently made, big budgeted, action-flick but as a part of the Die Hard franchise it was a horrible installment. It had absolutely nothing to do with any of the previous movies and really was basically missing everything in it that made all of the earlier Die Hard movies work. They worked because they were action-flicks, that however featured a likable and also realistic protagonist, that was easy to identify with. In those movies John McClane was above all things a very human character. But by now, he has turned into a sort of superhero, that dodges bullets for fun, jumps through windows just because he can and never seems to be afraid to die or get hurt by anything or anyone. The action is big, over-the-top and above all unrealistic and all far from engaging to watch. That all was the case for "Live Free or Die Hard" but this goes just as well for this latest- and fifth movie of the series.

But again, once you look at this movie purely as an action flick, there is still no way I can say that this movie is being a horrible one. It's unremarkable and nothing you haven't seen before but it all still remains well made and shot. You could still enjoy it on some action movie levels but even as a simplistic and straightforward action flick, this movie also still has plenty of problems to it.

The story is just really too simple and nonsensical for my taste. Thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't really ever takes it time to buildup things but it throws you pretty much right into the action. The story progresses along with its action but I seriously did wish this movie would had some more slower moments in it at times, to explain the story- and set it and certain characters up far better and more effectively.

Right now, the story as it is comes across as totally irrelevant for the movie and it's also hard to keep up with things, since chances you will start to loose interest in it pretty early on already. There just isn't really anything interesting or surprising to it and even the 'twists' are formulaic and just too predictable.

I do have to say thought that Bruce Willis has still got it in him. OK, so it's not the great McClane we know from the first 3 Die Hard movies but he's still a convincing action star, at the age of 57. Sort of still keeps me hopeful for future upcoming Die Hard movies. All of the other characters remain sort of bland all throughout, including the movie its villains, which is especially disappointing.

I also still kind of liked Sebastian Koch and I would had loved to have seen him in a better Die Hard movie. His performance deserved it, though I admit that it's still a bit of a weird and odd choice that they had to pick a German to play a very Russian character. But having said that, he does it very convincingly and it's too bad not a whole lot of people are going to give him an awful lot of credit for it, simply because it wasn't in a better movie.

Bad as a part of the Die Hard franchise but still OK enough as a simple, big, dumb action flick.

Comments

Great Review Boba

Great review of this movie. To be honest I was not really a fan of this, I agree with everything you say about it not being a Die Hard movie, and does not resemble the original source material one bit. As far as the action it is enjoyable, but I just think it was unrealistic action, like you say, John McClane seems super human in this movie. And I agree Bruc Willis definately still has it to cut it as an action star.

I agree

Because this Die Hard movie is pretty much a standard action flick, it's hard to dislike it, even if we can't like it more. As for Live Free or Die Hard, I'm part of the group that actually loved it, but I totally respect your opinion, Boba.

No free pass

IMHO the film and filmmakers have a certain responsibility once they chose to include "Die Hard" in the title and John McClane as a character. Because of that, they lose the benefit for me to view this as just another action movie. There is no such thing as cheating a little bit. Your point about McClane now on verge of superhero is spot on ... and in complete contradiction to what made him such a fascinating character when the series began.