If there was ever a definition of a mixed bag of a movie, I think The World is Not Enough would be part of it. There are parts of this movie that I really, really liked and then there were parts that I really didn't like. The really good parts only manage to make the really bad ones stand out that much more and that's the troubling thing with this film.
James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) is assigned to protect Oil heiress Elektra King (played by Sophie Marceau) after her father is killed by an explosion created by notorious terrorist known as Renard (played by Robert Carlyle). Elektra is believed to be Renard's next target and has already had one run in with him during a botched kidnapping years prior. This suspicion is confirmed when Bond and Elektra are ambushed by a quartet of the least stealthy assassins ever while they are overseeing where Elektra's new oil pipeline is supposed to go. The assassins enter the scene on paragliding snowmobiles. I swear to god I am not making this up. This leads to a lengthy chase scene with Bond and Elektra trying to get away on skis. Now the ski chase has been a staple of the Bond series since On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but at this point just feels rote. Anyway, following this attack Bond contacts Valentin Zukovsky (played by Robbie Coltrane), a former KGB agent and is able to get information that leads him to a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan where he runs into Dr. Christmas Jones (played by Denise Richards) and Renard himself. Before he can take out Renard, Jones blows his cover and Renard is able to get away with a nuclear bomb. Bond then teams up to track down Renard and stop him.
First off, there is a lot to like about this movie. It has a slightly more vulnerable Bond as he gets hurt in the opening action sequence, but also explores the darker side of Bond, which Pierce Brosnan pulls off wonderfully. There is also a bigger role for M (played by Judi Dench) this time around, as it explores her relationship with the King family and old sins coming back to haunt her. Usually, M functioned in a strictly expository role. He set up the plot and sent Bond on his mission, but with the newer films, especially this one and Skyfall, they explored the character more and showed that her job was not always the easiest. The film also has a couple decent plot twists that I went to great pains to dance around in the plot summary above that I felt added a little bit of surprise to the proceedings.
And then there is Q (played by Desmond Llewelyn). I haven't written much about Q in these reviews but he is easily one of my favorite characters in the series, especially the portrayal by Desmond over his 17 appearances in the series. This one, sadly, marked his last one. He passed away shortly after the release of the film in an auto accident. He first appeared in From Russia With Love and only missed one film from then on, Live and Let Die due to a scheduling conflict and general, if misguided, desire to play down the gadgets for that film. No matter how terrible the Bond film was, I always got some joy out Bond's encounters with Q, whether it was bantering between the two like with Connery or Brosnan or at times Roger Moore, or a meeting of old friends as it was like between him and Dalton, they were always one of my favorite moments in the film. In this film he has an assistant played by John Cleese, jokingly referred to as R by Bond. But as I watched the film again, I couldn't help but tear up a little. At least he got a great exit. I just wished his final film appearance had been in a better Bond movie.
This brings us to the less than great aspects of this movie and there are a few. The main offender is Denise Richards, woefully miscast as the improbably named Dr. Christmas Jones. There is not one second that she is convincing as a nuclear physicist. But, to make matters worse, her acting is just atrocious. It is flat and lifeless. It boggles the mind that this was allowed to pass muster. Did the filmmakers have so much contempt for the audience that they figured we wouldn't care just because she's hot and dressed like Lara Croft (I'm not joking, she really is.)? The character name was given to her to set up one joke at the end of the movie. Anyone savvy to the trademark Bond double entendre will see that joke coming a mile away and still groan when they hear Pierce utter it.
The other thing is the villain just isn't that compelling Robert Carlyle does the best he can with the role of Renard, but he just isn't that intimidating as a villain. One of the big plot points is that Renard has a bullet lodged in his brain and as a result can no longer feel pain. Which is pretty cool in theory, but in execution there is no payoff to this when we reach the final confrontation between Renard and Bond, on a sinking nuclear sub no less. It's just a regular fight between the two of them. It just makes me wonder why they bothered adding it at all if they weren't going to do anything with it. All I can think is that they used it because they felt like traditional Bond villains needed some sort of quirk or freakish aspect and they went with that.
Overall, there are some things I really like about The World is Not Enough which only makes the stuff I don't like about it, mainly Denise Richards, that much more apparent. It's not the absolute worst of the Bond series, but it's not the best either.
No comments:
Post a Comment