No character (no spoilers)

Rating: 4/10 (27 June 2007)

One of the things that made the original Die Hard so great was, in addition to exceptionally intense action scenes, the character arc, John Mcclane was (as opposed to the typical action hero) a man with low self-regard, he feels emasculated by his wife's career, his kids now live three thousand miles away.He finds himself trapped in a situation way beyond what he feels he can handle alone, but in being forced to deal with it he redeems himself in his own eyes and matures to the point where he no longer feels threatened by his wife's independence. This character arc is part of what makes Die hard a successful story.
Live free or die hard has none of this, there are a few throwaway lines that pass for an attempt at character, but mostly all you get is action ( granted some of the action scenes are very visceral as in the first film, others are generic and have been seen in many other films) without a human story.
So why go to all the trouble of making another entry into the series after twelve years without telling a story about people? The answer is i don't know. If you're looking for a worthy sequel to Die Hard, the third entry was far stronger.