Let down by plot compromises

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2007)

Die Hard 4.0 is enjoyable on the level of 'how many cars can they smash up in one movie?', but on the human level they've compromised John MacLean. In this story he's little more than a bodyguard for the tame hacker until halfway through, and then it's as though they thought, 'Oh, we'd better give him some motivation - let's put his daughter in a hostage situation'.This is fine all the while it's leading up to the final confrontation with all sorts of CGI and stunts, but the ending is a real letdown. They make us swallow all that nonsense about patching networks at lightning speed and literally wrestling a jet fighter to the ground, and then what's the big finish? A bog-standard boring old Mexican standoff - in a shed or hangar - that might have come from TJ Hooker. There's no payoff for believing all that hokum! MacLean should do something even more amazing to turn the tables ON HIS OWN; instead it's a group effort and Bruce pulls off a cliché. 8/10 for a stylish CGI actioner, 4 for the ending. And the violence against women in this movie is not right; that must be why the PG rating. But it's not right.