Let me start by saying that I enjoyed Olympus Has Fallen back upon seeing it in theaters in Spring 2013. While the film was no action movie classic, I found the plot to be entertaining and the fact that it had strong actors playing the main characters helped cover up the cartoonish aspects of it, such as the Koreans successfully overtaking the White House and defeating the Secret Service. I also enjoyed Roland Emmerich's White House Down with Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, and found the villains to be more believable than the ones in Olympus Has Fallen. Of the two lead action heroes, Gerard Butler is the more appealing action hero with better acting skills. I dug Aaron Eckhart's character and found him to be a great President that I would vote for personally. I think Aaron Eckhart is one of the most underappreciated actors in Hollywood, especially after giving an outstanding performance as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. The first Fallen movie was far from original, but it delivered in the entertainment department thanks to Antoine Fuqua's intense directing and a strong performance from Gerard Butler. Truth be told, Olympus could've been Die Hard 5 technically with the whole claustrophobic feel of being trapped in the White House. Even White House Down's script could've also been used as the two are virtually the same movie. Upon hearing the news of a sequel being filmed to Olympus, one has to wonder about where they could possibly take the story from where the first movie ended without it coming across as being the exact same film with just a different location. Coming out of the theater to no one's surprise, the filmmakers behind London Has Fallen have chosen to essentially remake the first movie except place the setting in London this time. While that is not necessarily a bad thing to completely redo the first movie essentially, it's not a good thing either. Let me explain.
London Has Fallen changes it's setting to London in hopes of the scope being bigger and more exciting than what was seen in Olympus Has Fallen but instead feels like a smaller film than the first movie. Maybe it's because the sequels synopsis is far from original and feels like a cheap repeat of the previous film, but this one just doesn't feel as exciting and fresh as the first movie. Gerard Butlers performance in this one is passable but he's not as engaging as he was in the first film. The first movie had his character trying to overcome loss and grief over not being able to save the Presidents wife when a situation turned tragic but here there's no real edge to his character rather than him protecting the President once again. Sure there's the subplot where he's considering retiring just because his wife is pregnant with his child but you never really see the struggle his character goes through prior to that point where he conflicts over his job and the need to be there for his family. This time him and the President have become great friends and Butlers character can be viewed as being the Presidents right hand man. The only difference between the two films scenario wise is this time Gerard is a full on bodyguard to the President instead of fighting through bad guys in the White House to get to him. Aaron Eckhart's character is still a mesmerizing one to watch, giving us a leader that we can believe in and see ourselves rooting for. All the other supporting characters from the first movie such as Morgan Freeman, Robert Forster, and Angela Basset all return but their characters get shorter amounts of screen time and quite frankly don't come off as being nearly interesting. One of the main problems with this sequel is that it trades character development and expansion of plot for lots of action. There was something about Antoine Fuqua's directing that gave the first movie a sense of excitement while keeping you glued to the screen in terms of figuring out what is happening. London Has Fallen, relies on many recycled and tired clichés from 1990's action flicks to glue together a script that feel's incomplete and uninspired. There is nothing in this film besides the location that feels new to the story other than basically remaking the first one and doing it in a way where it comes off as being less entertaining. As cartoonish as the Korean terrorists from the first movie came off as being, at least they were developed throughout that film as the villains in these are never truly compelling with their sole mission is only to execute the President in front of the world with no answer as to why?
Some action movies that turn out to be decent should just be left alone as one movie before the charm and storyline of that film is ruined by further attempts with making sequels. That is very much the case here with London Has Fallen. This movie is exactly the same as the first movie in terms of ripping off it's plot and it's location being in London backfires because the film feels much smaller in scope than the first movie. Even the patriotic music theme in this movie doesn't feel as inspired and patriotic as the first film. The plots are exactly the same but the execution of both films vary as this one feels more watered down and made with less effort than what went into Olympus. If you didn't care for the first Olympus Has Fallen movie then you're not going to be won over by this one. If you did find the first film to be enjoyable and plan to go into this movie with great anticipation, then the chances are you're going to either accept it for what it is or be disappointed on some level. The message behind Olympus Has Fallen was that America can be attacked from terrorists abroad but also has the ability to survive. London Has Fallen's message is a more patriotic punch with it saying that America and it's allies will combat and defeat terrorism worldwide due to the fighting spirit and skills of it's politicians and Secret Service agents. I wish Fuqua returned to direct this film as I felt the quality and script would've been more fleshed out like the first film was but reportedly, Antoine chose not to return to the direct the sequel as he found the script to be dissatisfying. Watching the end product, one certainly cannot blame him and there is the wish that they worked harder in that regard to get him back. London Has Fallen is mildly entertaining for being a duplicate of the first movie but certainly isn't on the same level as that film. The story relies a bit on xenophobia and every tired old clichés from the previous film such as traitors on the allies side helping the bad guys, and other action movies to make it's storyline appear as being thrilling when in actuality it's rather silly by this time around. The film works best as being a Redbox rental if there's nothing else good on cable but if you feel that it's not even worth spending that much for, then just slip Olympus Has Fallen into the DVD player as you won't be missing anything new with this one. Believe me, you really won't.
6/10
Our characters for this evening:
No comments:
Post a Comment