Die Hard Franchise Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Its been over a week since my last review of the franchise and today I will be reviewing the penultimate (or at least for now) movie in the franchise, Live Free or Die Hard or Die Hard 4.0 as some call it. In my opinion, this movie isn't that bad although it moved to a lower rating than the last three it blends in with the modern action movie pretty well.

But that's what I think and in this review, I will be discussing why. The film takes 12 years after the previous entry in the franchise and acts as both a continuation and a kind of soft reboot to the character, I mean slightly there's not much difference from McClane's character from the previous movies.

The movie's plot is a group of hackers decide to hack into every security service in America starting a firewall or something like that which will make the country and the world defenceless. McClane joins forces with a young hacker called Matt Farrell played by Justin Long and together with the help of the FBI must take down the villain Thomas Gabriel from achieving this. The movie's cast goes as Bruce Willis as John McClane, Justin Long as Matt Farrell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane, Cliff Curtis as FBI Deputy Director Miguel Bowman, Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel and Kevin Smith, yes Kevin Smith as Frederick "Warlock" Davis.

Now on to the good parts of the movie. It fits well with the modern action movie really well as it does not try to change the premise of Die Hard but instead adapts it to the modern world and how McClane's world gets bigger. It also makes McClane what he was in the first movie by muttering how he has found himself in this situation. Also, the villain is good as he has a motivation for his actions and that he has also designed most of them builds up his threat level as well. The supporting characters like Matt and Lucy are done well also as it shows a relatable side to McClane.

However, there are some bad parts to his movie. The FBI's role in the film is a bit out of place as they don't really do anything. The movie doesn't have the same feel like the other three as it closed off as a trilogy, and it feels a bit weird to have the other 2 movies hence a soft reboot and also it could do more if it did not go to a lower rating.

But saying that, the fourth entry is an enjoyable ride, with entertaining action scenes, decent CGI for its time and also John McClane is just one of the best protagonists to come out of any action movie as his character doesn't really change much which doesn't make him too complicated.

I would give Live Free or Die Hard a 7/10- For an entertaining and action-packed continuation of the franchise. But it doesn't feel quite the same.