Die Another Day is one of the most divisive Bond films ever made—and for good reason. The first half feels like a brutal, grounded spy thriller. Bond is captured, tortured, and stripped of everything that makes him 007. It’s raw, serious, and genuinely exciting. The second half? A CGI mess involving invisible cars, diamond-faced henchmen, and a villain who went through gene therapy to become white. It’s like GoldenEye meets Spy Kids, and the tonal whiplash is real.
So I land at a 3 out of 5. I liked it. I liked the first half a lot. But then the film takes a nosedive straight into sci-fi cheese, and never quite recovers. It’s two movies smashed together—one strong, one absolutely bonkers.
Plot: Torture, Betrayal, and Satellite Lasers
Bond is captured in North Korea after a mission goes sideways. He’s held and tortured for over a year, presumed dead, and only released in a prisoner exchange. But MI6 thinks he cracked under pressure and yanks his license to kill. So Bond goes rogue to track down the traitor who set him up, which leads him from Hong Kong to Cuba to London, and eventually to Gustav Graves—a billionaire playboy with a suspicious origin story and a plan to weaponize a satellite laser called Icarus.
It starts tense and grounded. Then the script seems to remember it’s a 40th anniversary Bond film and starts throwing in everything—laser fights, DNA swaps, fencing duels, robot suits. It’s like the filmmakers got nervous halfway through and went full spectacle.
Pierce Brosnan: Still Cool, Still Trying
Brosnan gives one of his more layered performances as Bond here, especially in the first act. His Bond is broken, bitter, and out for blood. It’s a side we haven’t seen before, and Brosnan leans into the anger and disillusionment beautifully. For a while, it feels like we’re heading toward a leaner, meaner Bond movie with real consequences.
Then the movie pivots into absurdity, and you can see Brosnan shift gears into action-figure mode. He handles it fine—he’s always good with the one-liners and smirking cool—but you can also tell the material gets away from him.
Jinx and Miranda Frost: Two Sides, One Misfire
Halle Berry’s Jinx is clearly meant to be a modern-day female Bond—deadly, quippy, sexy—but the execution is mixed. Her entrance is iconic (rising from the sea in that orange bikini), and she holds her own in fight scenes, but the dialogue is painful. Berry does her best, but lines like “Read this, bitch!” and the ice palace banter don’t do her any favors.
Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost is better. Cold, calculating, and actually surprising as the villain reveal, she’s one of the few characters who feels like she belongs in the more grounded half of the film. Her swordfight with Jinx is one of the highlights of the back half.
Gustav Graves: Olympic Ego with a Side of Lasers
Toby Stephens plays Graves like he’s auditioning for a Bond parody. He’s a mix of Elon Musk and Draco Malfoy, constantly smirking, fencing, and monologuing about destiny. The idea of a villain who reinvented himself through gene therapy is interesting, but the execution is pure sci-fi silliness. The diamond-encrusted face of his henchman, Zao, is equally ridiculous and underutilized.
There’s a version of Die Another Day where Graves could have been an iconic villain. This is not that version.
Action: Slick Then Sloppy
The early action in Die Another Day is solid. The hovercraft chase through the Korean DMZ? Great. The Hong Kong hotel escape and Cuban clinic infiltration? Fantastic. The fencing duel at the Blades Club? One of the most grounded and intense Brosnan-era sequences.
Then… the ice palace. The invisible car. The terrible CGI tsunami surfing scene that looks like it came out of a PS2 cutscene. Die Another Day goes full cartoon in the back half, and it doesn’t have the tone or visual effects to sell it.
Even the final showdown on the cargo plane, which should be thrilling, is bogged down by overblown action and zero emotional weight.
Music and Style: Madonna, Please Stop
David Arnold’s score is solid throughout, blending classic Bond flourishes with modern energy. But Madonna’s title track? A clunky, robotic mess that sounds like someone fed a Bond theme through a fax machine. She even shows up in a bizarre fencing instructor cameo for no reason at all.
The movie wants to feel futuristic and slick, but the early-2000s digital aesthetic hasn’t aged well.
Final Verdict: A Tale of Two Halves
Die Another Day is infuriating because it almost works. The first half promises a grittier, angrier Bond story with personal stakes. The second half drowns it in CGI and one-liners. Brosnan still carries the role with grace and grit, but by the end, the movie feels like it lost its own plot.
It’s bloated and ridiculous, but not without charm. And as a send-off to Brosnan? Not the worst way to go out. Just not the best.