At this point people are actually starting to get tired of Die Hard. Can you imagine that? No one is really amped up for another one, let alone a prequel, but it would seem that rumor has it that there is in fact a prequel in the works. If we’ve gotten tired of the franchise however what’s one more movie going to do? It could possibly finish off the legend that was John McClane for good, if the last movie didn’t do that already.
It’s been said so many times but it still bears repeating that Hollywood seems to love, absolutely LOVE, tossing the same thing at viewers time and time again just to see if that same magic can be replicated in a cookie cutter fashion to appease the masses. It’s been done with horror, action, and even comedy on occasions, and the majority of times it’s bombed out horribly. No one wants to keep watching the same old show with the same plot over and over again. What’s happened with Die Hard is not a unique case but the fact that the character has shown zero development throughout the franchise is not helping.
An adequate comparison is the Fast and Furious franchise. Throughout the first few films we got to see a few different actors and a couple of different scenarios. Of course they all involved fast cars, love stories, and some type of criminal element, but they were all essentially different. But then after the fourth, then the fifth, and so on, it became just more of the same thing. Die Hard is kind of like that. Despite the big, flashy effects and new additions to the cast it’s just more of the same shoot ’em up, blow ’em up kind of thing that John McClane became so good at it in the first movie.
What really blows a lot of people away and actually helped to cement his reputation is that McClane isn’t a supercop. He’s not some big buff bruiser like Schwarzenegger or Stallone, he wasn’t the first Jason Statham and he certainly wasn’t Chuck Norris. He was just a regular New York City cop in LA to try and patch things up with his wife. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught up with something that was way above his pay grade and experience level. And yet, he survived. How the hell did that happen?
Movie magic can explain a lot of it, but the unforeseen cunning and resourcefulness that McClane brought to the table was something that Hans and his crew weren’t expecting and thus couldn’t plan for. If you’ll remember correctly though John found himself trapped more than once and only through sheer luck and good timing he managed to keep from getting himself killed. For the most part, the only reason John managed to survive was that he fell back on one of his best skills, he found a way to really annoy the heck out of the terrorists. Ever try to concentrate on something important when someone’s messing with you? It’s the same thing, and it’s just as annoying.
But all of that aside, we don’t need another Die Hard for one reason: the franchise is played out. Recognize that Hollywood, and move on.
Follow Us
