Back to Bond after a long layoff, too bad I had to return at this point in the franchise.
The World is Not Enough has a promising (albeit overlong) pre-credit sequence, highlighted by an excellent boat chase. Brosnan gives an intense, focused performance which, at least during the first half of this film, is his strongest to date. Again though, Brosnan can’t salvage a convoluted plot and predictable villain (I suspected Elektra was a heel almost immediately). I’m continually shocked that the creative minds behind these films have no idea how to use Brosnan. He’s a powerful presence, dramatically skilled, and excellent in action scenes, so why is he being fed horrible one-liners like he’s Roger Moore? Close but no cigar? Christmas only comes once a year? It’s embarrassing.
The second half of the film is mostly forgettable. Denise Richards (playing nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones) gives a woeful performance. She can’t even deliver the line, “I’m going out for some air.” The film is well cast otherwise; Sophia Marceau, Robert Carlyle, and Robbie Coltrane inject some life into a bad script.
This film is a marginal step-up from Tomorrow Never Dies which, while appreciated by me as a viewer, still places The World is Not Enough near the bottom of the series.
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