Superhero Media: A Good Day to Die Hard

And here we are at the end of another series. Hopefully, I mean, I don't want to have to cover that proposed John McClaine "origins" film down the line or discover that there was an '80s cartoon with a tie-in action figure line I was unaware of. Ok, so A Good Day to Die Hard is clearly an attempt at a soft reboot of the franchise, with Jai Courtney as "John McClaine Jr", aka "Jack McClaine" being the literally anointed son before he was terrible in Suicide Squad. Set in Russia, because reasons, John McClaine (Sn) is looking for his estranged son, after reconnecting with his daughter in the previous entry, who it turns out is working for the CIA trying to stage a coup in Russia. Wow, got that one backwards, huh? Actually pretty much all of A Good Day to Die Hard is a fantasy of America being relevant and powerful, fighting back against Russian corruption with direct violence and ham-headed gun-play. It's actually pretty hilarious if you look at it as escapist fantasy for remorseful Trump voters, but otherwise is mostly bland and forgettable. 

I mean, A Good Day to Die Hard is still a Die Hard film, so seeing John McClaine mutter to himself, blow things up almost by accident and bleed everywhere, but it's like watching footage of The Rolling Stones recorded recently instead of just watching the "Sympathy for the Devil" video clip again. Sure, it's new, but is it really as good as just watching the classic would have been? See, Boomers, I've got stuff for you too, now redistribute your wealth already. And lay off the trans kids. There's a fun car chase and the story ends up a Chernobyl, because of course it does, can you name another place in Russia? The real elephant in the room on A Good Day to Die Hard is that this film kind of has the greasy feel of an attempted "Cinematic Universe". It's hard to spot, but it is there, especially in the continued mentions of Jack "really" being John Jr and the sudden introduction of competent law enforcement. Yeah, did you ever notice that, other than McClaine and other "beat cops", none of the professional law enforcement in the Die Hard franchise are capable of anything before this entry? 

The two Johnsons, the airport police, military specialists, FBI, CIA, they're all out of their depths without McClaine, right up until A Good Day to Die Hard, where suddenly they know what they're doing from the second act out. I guess it's what happens when a series runs from 1988 to 2013 and has to update along the way to stay relevant. Also the quality dips as we have to buy into McClaine somehow surviving each new outing, despite ageing and what has to be severe spinal trauma by now. Like, McClaine just has to have had at least a dozen concussions, so he'd be done without his healing factor that we've clearly established he has over this run of Superhero Media articles. I hope this is the end for Die Hard, what was a decent trilogy has become another run-on series with nothing much unique about it or a hook worth being interested in. That said, the value of the first film really can't be diminished and I'll still be watching it every Christmas.