Die more harder than ever

Rating: 5/10 (10 November 2008)

In each Die Hard, the feats become more outrageous as the scope of the movie expands. Die Hard 1 took place in a single building. McClane walked barefoot over broken glass, jumped off exploding rooftops, and single-handedly took down a dozen armed henchmen. Die Hard 2 upped the ante by expanding the setting to an entire airport. Finally, in Die Hard 3, McClane had to race all over New York City to prevent a massive theft of gold.
In "Live Free or Die Hard," the action takes place all along the East Coast. McClane hops all over the country, from NYC, to DC, to West Virginia, to Maryland. What worked in a single building in DH1 simply looks absurd and childish on a national scale.
In Live Free, a covert group of cyber terrorist takes over everything that can be hacked. In a blink of an eye, they take over traffic control, law enforcement communications, the stock markets, private corporate files, federal disaster alert systems, cellphone networks, satellite communications systems, and apparently ANY system that makes use of a camera.
The potential breadth and ease of such a cyberattack is already difficult to swallow for a skeptical audience, but the movie turns this leap-of-faith on its head by arbitrarily designating certain computer systems as "closed circuit." Yep, notwithstanding the power of these magical hackers (who by the way, can apparently infect your computer with exploding viruses), there are certain systems that can be accessed only by physically storming the facility with thugs toting guns. It's like how Superman's one weakness in the universe is kryptonite, which just happens to be under every rock in Smallville.
In DH1, McClane did his best to work with incompetent local police and the FBI. In Live Free, the entire nation is apparently handled by one man, an FBI director played by Cliff Curtis. Forget the President, the NSA, the CIA, the entire military. Those silly feds left the fate of the country of one man, who must always handle matters personally.
Disbelief permeates Live Free at the ground level as well. Maggie Q's character is apparently enhanced with steel reinforcements. McClane plows into her with a large SUV and slams her through about five walls. She emerges from the mess as lively as ever, ready to swap kicks with McClane.
Lastly, I don't think genius-hacker Justin Long used a single Mac in this movie. Should someone inform Apple of this harsh betrayal?