Live Free or Die Hard is the franchise's most crowd-pleasing entry since Die Hard 2 and its most dramatically thin since the same film, a digital age update that delivers its spectacular set-pieces with adequate competence and entertainment while losing almost entirely the tonal intelligence, spatial precision, and dramatic consequence that made the original so genuinely extraordinary. Len Wiseman's 2007 film is not a bad action movie. It is a functional and frequently enjoyable one, with set-pieces of considerable visual ambition and a central performance from Bruce Willis that maintains the everyman quality that has always been the franchise's greatest asset. But it is a film that has abandoned the franchise's most important qualities in favour of a more generically spectacular blockbuster register, and the result is a Die Hard film that is entertaining in the way that many action films are entertaining, rather than extraordinary in the way that the original is extraordinary.
At a Glance
Director: Len Wiseman
Runtime: 128 minutes
Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Release: 2007
Critics Rating: ★★½ (2.5/5 stars, crowd-pleasing but thin)
Audience Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, enjoyable)
Review Breakdown
Plot
McClane is assigned to bring a hacker named Matt Farrell to Washington DC for questioning, and finds himself in the middle of a cyber-terrorist attack on the United States' infrastructure orchestrated by Thomas Gabriel, a former government security expert. The plot is the franchise's most topically relevant, a digital age thriller of adequate complexity that uses the cyber-terrorism premise with enough intelligence to generate adequate tension in its action sequences. The infrastructure attack premise gives the film a sense of national stakes, but the picture handles this with insufficient specificity to make the threat feel urgent rather than merely spectacular. The McClane-Farrell partnership is the film's most enjoyable element, a generational dynamic of adequate wit and chemistry.
Characters
McClane is given the franchise's most explicitly generational material in this entry, a man whose analogue skills and physical directness are contrasted with the digital world of the cyber-terrorists and his hacker partner. Willis plays the character's exasperation with the modern world and his determination with a conviction and wit that makes McClane feel compelling despite the more generic material. Timothy Olyphant's Gabriel is the franchise's least memorable major villain before A Good Day to Die Hard, a cyber-terrorist of adequate menace and limited sophistication whose motivations are handled with insufficient depth to make him feel like a credible presence. Long is a capable performer whose Farrell has a comic timing and intelligence that makes him the franchise's most enjoyable new character since Zeus.
Tone
Wiseman pitches the film at a register of spectacular blockbuster action and adequate character comedy, a decision that suits the film's commercial ambitions but loses much of the tonal precision and dramatic consequence that made the original so genuinely extraordinary. Live Free or Die Hard has the energy and momentum of a competent blockbuster, with set-pieces staged with adequate visual clarity and considerable physical scale, but it lacks the tonal intelligence and spatial precision that made the original's action sequences feel consequential.
Meaning / Themes
At its core, the film is about analogue competence and digital vulnerability, about McClane's physical directness and the cyber-terrorists' ability to attack infrastructure without physical presence. The generational dynamic between McClane and Farrell gives the picture a secondary thematic concern of real interest, a suggestion that the analogue and digital generations have complementary rather than competing capabilities.
Direction
Wiseman's direction is technically accomplished and adequate, a work of considerable visual ambition and limited intelligence that lacks the spatial precision and tonal command of McTiernan's finest work. The tunnel sequence is the film's directorial highlight, a set-piece of considerable visual invention and adequate tension. Marco Beltrami's score is propulsive and atmospheric, providing a sonic energy that suits the more overtly spectacular register.
Cultural Reception
Live Free or Die Hard was a major commercial success on its release, performing strongly at the box office and receiving a warmer critical reception than Die Hard 2. Its reputation has settled into a consensus that regards it as a competent but significantly diminished franchise entry, notable primarily for Willis's performance and the McClane-Farrell partnership.
Who Should Watch
Die Hard fans will find it worth watching for Willis's McClane and the McClane-Farrell partnership. Those expecting the spatial precision and tonal intelligence of the original or Die Hard with a Vengeance will find a more generic and less satisfying experience.
Final Verdict: A crowd-pleasing but dramatically thin film that updates the franchise for the digital age while losing much of what made the original great. Willis's McClane is as compelling as ever, the McClane-Farrell partnership is the franchise's most enjoyable new character dynamic since Zeus, and Wiseman's direction delivers the spectacular set-pieces with adequate visual ambition. But Gabriel is the franchise's least memorable villain before A Good Day to Die Hard, the tonal precision of the original is entirely absent, and Live Free or Die Hard is ultimately entertaining in the way that many action films are entertaining, rather than extraordinary in the way that the original is extraordinary.
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