I saw Live Free or Die Hard tonight and I'm of confused by it. It isn't Die Hard 4. It's not really a Die Hard movie at all. It's as if the Die Hard movies were translated into an internet meme and then reconstructed into a movie. Just like Chuck Norris' never really was like the persona that embodies Chuck Norris jokes, neither did John McClain ever act like the unbeatable super-hero shown in LFoDH. John McClain is the guy who gets his feet all cut up by glass and then bleeds everywhere and limps into the final showdown. Not the guy who jumps out of a moving car at 50mph and then shows no ill effects five minutes later.
Additionally, the Die Hard movies have always had a keen sense of location and locale. Nakatomi Towers had a logical layout. It felt like a real building. Die Hard 2 might have been downright silly, but the airport also felt like a real place that had logical rules applied to it (even if the plot didn't). Die Hard 3 gives a sense of New York (and specifically 1994 New York) better than almost any mainstream movie I can think of. Little touches — like the fact that when they exit Central Park heading south they end up in Columbus Circle (exactly where they should end up), even though they don't mention where they are and any anonymous intersection could have worked — made the entire city of New York into one of the tightly controlled locations featured in the first two movies.
In LFoDH there isn't any of that. This is LA standing in for New Jersey, DC, Baltimore and South Virginia. Everything shot feels like it's of a loose sketch of a place or an over produced set which can be changed to fit the whim of the plot (such as it is). You never really get a sense of anything.
Further, the much talked about move from the R to PG-13 rating certainly hurt the film. What the movie really lacked was a visceral quality. It felt canned and overly-manufactured. A bit of blood and some swearing would have reached out and jostled the audience and added a few rough edges to everything. I'm sure there will be a blood and swears version coming out on DVD.
As for the plot ... well it's pretty dumb. I'll just say that it kind-of felt like a rip-of the plot of The Net. You know, that movie starring Sandra Bullock? Where they were like "OMG I'm ordering pizza on the internet!!!". But whatever, the rest of the movie felt too pasted together for a logical plot to really make much of a difference anyway.
That being said ... there were some pretty awesome explosions. And McClain does act pretty badass in a few places. And there are some stunts that look pretty cool. And there are more cool explosions. And then McClain kills some dudes and makes a joke or two. And then there are more explosions. So on that level it's worth seeing. Just wait for the blood and swears version.
