Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Die Hard Series Reviewed

By Justin Vance

The Die Hard movies are prime examples of action in the eighties and nineties. They capture the humor and the craziness of action movies while not sacrifices some seriously good action scenes. The newest movie in the franchise was, for many people, a bit of a disappointment. That is, most likely, because it went a little bit too much over the top.

The first pits a single cop, John McClain, against a group of terrorists/robbers. The main bad guy, played by a very stylish Alan Rickman, is the perfect example of the over the top, pure evil bad guy that we like to see fall out of a window at the end of the movie. What is great is that even though John has to fight everyone on his own, he spends the whole movie trying to get anyone else to come and help him. This gives the movie a sense of realism, as well as telling us that John doesn't think he can really take out everyone on his own, even though that is what ends up happening, though it does happen largely through luck.

The second movie gets a little more outlandish. John happens to be at the site of another terrorists/robbery scheme and happens to be the one that is able to stop them before anything truly bad happens. He is a little more gung ho in this movie, but he still tries to get as much help as possible from anyone else who is around.

The third movie encompasses an entire city. This time John gets roped in by the choice of the bad guys instead of just happening to be around for it. And even though the action gets a little more out of control in this movie, it is still in the realm of believable for an action movie. It also allows Samuel Jackson to show up and constantly complain about having to deal with John.

The fourth movie, though, takes the premise to an extreme that it didn't really need to go to. Suddenly John McClain is some sort of super hero that can take on all comers. There is some fun scenes and there are some cool looking shots, but really it boils down to a single person suddenly seeming to be able to do things that only the super powered would really be able to do in real life.

These movies work better on the smaller scale. They don't need to be the big adventures like the super hero movies. They are meant to be about a lone guy who is tough, but not powerful. He has to fight against a bigger group that is up to no good. These aren't movies about a vigilante, these are movies about someone who just has a job to do and is trying to get it done without getting killed in the process.

The biggest difference in the movies is the difference in the way movies are being made. Super hero movies have upped the ante on action, and special effects have gotten a lot better. It isn't that the filmmakers can't make a good Die Hard movie, it is simply that they are able to make a movie that is more about the flashy effects than about the basic idea of one man taking on a larger group of baddies.

Die Hard is a great franchise. If it ends now, then it will always be remembered that way. But as filmmaking keeps getting bigger and bigger, it is going to turn into a movie that is about John McClain taking on an entire country while flying through the air on a jet pack. And it will be in 3d. There is just no need for that. - 40726

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