From its harrowing boat/hot air balloon chase that opens the film on a distinctive note of high octane, to the hand-to-hand fight finale between Bond and the villain in a confined submarine, director Michael Apted’s The World Is Not Enough (1999) is an impressively mounted super-production mired by problematic story-telling – at least insofar as a Bond film is concerned. Rules are rules and the rules of a Bond film should never be tampered with. First: that the villain will always be male. Second, that the Bond girl - usually scantily clad - is an appendage to Bond, not a sidekick. Third, that James Bond is ultimately the hero of the day.Yet, what occurs on this outing is a subversion of these time honoured principles, perhaps because the screenplay patched together by Neal Purvis, Roger Wade and Bruce Feirstein has no original material to fall back on. All of Ian Fleming’s original masterworks have been used up. Instead, Bond (Pierce Brosnon) becomes a hapless fop in the diabolical machinations of Elektra King (Sophie Marceau). Unbeknownst to Bond, Elektra’s prior kidnapping by rogue nationalist, Renard (Robert Carlyle) has brainwashed her into becoming his loyal accomplice and lover.
In the pre-title sequence, Bond retrieves a large sum of money for Sir Robert King (David Calder) from a group of crooked Swiss bankers in Bilbao, Spain. The money is returned to MI6 Headquarters in London, but it has been tainted with a powerful explosive that is triggered by a hidden detonator in Sir Robert's lapel pin. After a nail-biting boat race down the Thames in pursuit of King's assassin (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), that ends when she decides to kill herself and, presumably Bond aboard a hot air balloon by blowing them both up, Bond is assigned to protect King's daughter, Elektra from a similar fate.
King's recovered funds are traced by M and Bond to Renard - a KGB operative who is slowly dying of a bullet lodged in his brain, but with the rare side effect that it has made Renard impervious to pain. Bond flies to Azerbaijan where he and Elektra are attacked by a hit squad. Assuming that the Russians are behind the hit, Bond confronts his sometimes friend, Valentin Zukovksy (Robbie Coltrane) and quickly learns that Elektra's head of security, Davidov (Ulrich Thomsen) is in league with Renard.
Killing Davidov, Bond next poses as Mikhail Arkov - a nuclear physicist working with weapons grade plutonium in a mine in Kazakhstan, where he meets his match in American scientist, Christmas Jones (Denise Richards). Recognizing that Bond is not Arkov, Christmas blows his cover and Renard manages to make off with enough plutonium to destroy half the world.
Bond discloses to M that Elektra may not be as innocent as she seems, a suspicion delayed rather than confirmed when Elektra stages a faux attack on her own pipeline to diffuse Bond's curiosity. M is taken hostage by Elektra to Turkey and Bond and Christmas find themselves in a race against time to confront Renard aboard the submarine he plans to use.
The script, an interesting series of action-based vignettes that hark back to the best in Bond tradition, clings together barely - and mostly because of its exotic locales and thought numbing special effects. Most stunts are full scale live action, superbly photographed without the aid of distracting CGI.
The first half of the film's narrative is impeccable cloak and dagger nonsense - clever and distracting. However, the latter half – when Elektra's full wrath is exposed - plays more like Greek revenge tragedy (no pun intended). Through it all, Bond is, regrettably, just along for the ride. He is first made Elektra’s complicit dupe; then second string to an all too savvy/less than sexy Bond girl, and finally, made the victim of torture that ends only after Zukovsky barges in, is killed by Elektra, but manages to shoot loose the handcuffs that have prevented Bond from his escape.
With all its flaws, The World is Not Enough still remains ambitious entertainment. At the time of its release it emerged as a $361 million blockbuster. Today, it's still a worthy contender in the Bond canon of classic adventures.
It should be noted that there is a considerable gap in the James Bond Blu-Ray franchise that needs to be corrected by the good people at MGM/Fox. After releasing three box sets and two stand alone discs, MGM/FOX has seemingly lost interest in the Bond franchise on Blu-Ray. Financial woes and restructuring aside, we are missing two Bond classics between the Blu-Ray release of Licence to Kill and The World Is Not Enough: Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies.
MGM/Fox's Blu-Ray easily bests anything we've seen before. Thanks to the technological wizardry of Lowry Digital Restorations, Bond has never looked better. Stunning new frame-by-frame digital clean ups from Lowry – a cutting edge leader in film preservation – have yielded exception image clarity and fidelity faithful to the original theatrical presentation. Color is bold, stunning and accurately balanced. Blacks are jet black. Whites are pristine, but never blooming. Better still, The World Is Not Enough has received a stunning new DTS sound mix that delivers exceptional spatial fidelity.
Extras include all of the documentaries MGM/UA Home Video previously produced and released on their lacklustre single disc incarnation back in the late 1990s early 2000s but with an added kick. Virtually all of that previously issued footage (which ranged from moderate to poor in image quality) has been given a serious upgrade. While source materials in these docs varies, their enhanced presentation herein makes them at long last worthy viewable addendums. This is Bond done right!
There are also audio commentary tracks, a wealth of vintage stock footage, tests, trailers and television spots and stills to wade through. Recommended!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
5
EXTRAS
3.5
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