Very interesting post-modern hero, but a flawed implementation

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2000)

The movie is interesting for the way that it seems to create a new age Bond, however the implementation of this idea is flawed - let us hope that it can be improved in the future.
MI2 reads like a new age James Bond - the agent is no longer the tough and stiff upper lip martini kind of guy, but a new age relatively funky and post-modern person reflected through manner, speech, activities, attitudes and so on.
The movie draws on multi-culturalism, with its mix of european, australian, american and asian dimensions - the stars, directors and personnel are all from varied backgrounds, and the plot although somewhat thin, contains various cultural elements. Sydney harbour with its Miami speed boat connotations and the almost asian fight sequences are examples of this, and the south african, american, european and australian characters.
There are references to contemporary culture and issues: stock options and the internet (unfortunately almost somewhat tacky in its implementation), genetics and killer viruses, and corporatism, etc. The fortunicity of motorbikes on the fortress was also somewhat unbelievable, and the obligatory reference to Atlanta in relationship to Sydney in the context of the 2000 Olympics. I see the character stereotypes, they sort of work, and they are necessary because the genre is necessarily about archetypes and stereotypes, across people and society as a reflection of how it is, and where it is going right now.
Filmed in Sydney - my home town - I can see some sort of Australianness in it : sort of less refined, but I can also see an almost post-modernist smirnoff blending of the real and surreal in Woos freeze frame sequences. The sensuality of the lead actress and her new age beauty combined with time blurred impressionistic cinematic sensuality are very seductive.
I was actually disappointed, especially because there is a lot of opportunity for a good modernist version of the hero - the sort of new age global playboy rooted in a more relaxed and funky turn of the millennium lifestyle, with a new age heroic story (the ethical dilemmas facing the new world), and contemporary cinematic techniques (e.g. blurring of boundaries between time, space and reality a la smirnoff).
Unfortunately it almost seems as though all of this was aimed for, but just couldn't didn't 'gel' together very well -- but perhaps this is a master reflection of contemporary society in the way that it trying to gel and fuse past and the present around the millennial epoch, and how post-millennial society has yet to be fully formed.
This resonates particularly deeply for Australia, because as Australia searches for a multicultural identity, it adopts, combines, and mixes all manner of backgrounds into a mix that has yet to congeal.
Perhaps in 10 years time, this this perspective will become be apparent in retrospect.