Issues aside, twelve years has done a worthy amount of good for John McClane

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2007)

Being a Die Hard fan, I was a bit skeptical about a new sequel coming almost twelve years after the last one. Everything has changed so much, and Bruce Willis has done very little since, and it just did not seem like that great of an idea to resurrect John McClane after so long. But as the trailers and the publicity machine started to unpackage itself, I got pretty excited for it. The PG-13 rating put a little damper on my enthusiasm for seeing the film (after all, the same thing happened with Alien vs. Predator a few years back, and look how atrocious that film was), but I pressed on, hoping for the best.
As Live Free or Die Hard opens, a group of cyber-technologists is rounding up some of America's hackers to write codes for them. Soon after, the technologists (now clearly cyber terrorists) hack into the FBI mainframe, setting off a red flag for the Feds. They ask for senior law enforcement officials around the country to pick up the most renowned hackers, and John McClane (Willis) just happens to be called on to pick up Matt Farrell (Justin Long). As he does, a hit squad is sent to kill Farrell, and McClane of course, saves him. Not knowing the purpose of the pick-up, McClane is soon thrust into a plot that could completely obliterate any ground the United States has created for themselves after 9/11.
Yeah, it sounds like a bit much for a Die Hard movie, but it most definitely pays off.
To start, Live Free or Die Hard truly is a Die Hard film, despite the change in rating. McClane is still a wise-ass cracking jokes and taking out bad guys at every turn. Even after the absence, Willis still has just enough finesse to pull off the role that made him a star almost twenty years ago. He may have aged, but this is still the McClane everyone remembers. Yes, his signature line does get cut rather abruptly, but he still provides just enough kicks for the audience to remember why the character was so popular to begin with.
As well, the action does not let up for much of the movie. I was afraid that the rating meant they had to sacrifice some of the more intense and violent scenery known to the series, but thankfully, it remains intact and just as strong as ever. Thrilling sequences abound throughout the movie (although the trailers do a bit too much of a revealing of one of the best ones), and all are well choreographed and edited onto screen. The use of CGI is apparent, but thanks to some of the clever editing, it is few and far between, making the action look more realistic and energized than ever before.
The story, while seemingly better thought out than other long-awaited sequels like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is far fetched. There are a lot of points that will either make you truly question the realism, and some that just feel tacky and ridiculous. The terrorist threat, no matter how frightening it may sound, has more than a handful of problems in its execution. But nonetheless, the filmmakers do valiantly try their best with the material, and for the most part, do fairly well with it. I did indeed enjoy a lot of the ideas brought to the table during the film, but not all of them gel together like they should.
What also does not work is the padding the film gets between the action sequences. The action is fast and furious, but when the story is being fleshed out, there were more than a few instances where the film just slows to a halt. I like the little character moments the previous three films offered, but here, they really do not do a lot for any of the characters. The extra material is obvious for McClane and helps make his older character seem a lot more useful than he should be, but the fleshing out of the likes of his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and the main villain, Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), do nothing for their characters. They still seem one-dimensional even as true character-building moments come and go. Their lifeless expressions and dull performances say it all. It is a bit bizarre, but it really damages the smaller character importance the other three films carried.
Long on the other hand, delivers a worthwhile performance as Farrell, and offers some genuine counter-programming to Willis' hard-assedness. He is nowhere near as strong a "sidekick" as the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, but he does well for himself anyway. Supporting performances from Maggie Q, Cliff Curtis and the intriguingly well-placed Kevin Smith are all very well done for their small amount of time on-screen.
For all of my liking of the return of McClane, and the balls-to-the-wall action sequences, I feel a small shudder of disappointment in the editing. While much of it is very well done, it is almost blatantly obvious where certain scenes have been stripped of their violence and language. Yes, a surprising amount of both appear on-screen (McClane would not be McClane if he was not covered in blood and not using profuse swearing), but a few moments appear where you can clearly see the words not matching the actor's lips, or where there looks to be more of a scene then there is. It is inevitable that the film will have an R-rated or Unrated DVD, but to make it so blatantly obvious during the film, just stinks of bad film-making.
Editing and character issues aside, Live Free or Die Hard is a solid action flick and a worthy predecessor to the Die Hard name. Anyone who has doubts about it living up to its name will be glad to hear that twelve years of absence has done John McClane good.
7.5/10.