Like most sequels- it's a flop

Rating: 5/10 (18 April 2010)

After the slightly disappointing Die Hard comes Die Hard 2, and like most sequels fails miserably. There is a number of reasons why a sequel can fail, for example loss of originality, something clearly not wrong with Die Hard 2 because it isn't difficult to keep a thriller plot line original. John McClaine's character is still the bad-ass police guy, so that's good. The reason why a lot of sequels fail is because they feel like they have to take everything to the next level- it has to be bigger and more bold than the last one, and in doing so they make the film even more stupid than before, in the case of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for example. However, this is not the case with Die Hard 2, things aren't really more over-the-top than its prequel, the problem is, if anything it's dumbed down. Things are less exciting, the plot is just plain boring, and the thing that made the first film so watchable- a well written villain played by a wonderful actor- wasn't there. The result? A boring story that feels far too long with boring action sequences that have nothing new in them and no memorable characters.