The plot for Angel Has Fallen takes place after the events of Olympus And London Has Fallen with loyal and trusted Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Played by Gerard Butler, reprising his role from Olympus and London Has Fallen), finds himself being framed for the attempted assassination of President Trumbull (Now played by Morgan Freeman, taking the mantle from Aaron Eckhart from the first two installments). In order to prove his innocence, Butler's character Mike Banning goes rogue in order to discover who framed him as well as finding out whose responsible for the attempted assassination of the president. Right off the bat, Angel Has Fallen attempts to distance itself from London Has Fallen's tactic of copying and pasting the original movie with a different location with the same President. Angel starts off following a similar path to Olympus and London before taking a detour with its plot by having Banning's character accused and framed for the attempted assassination of President Trumbull played by Morgan Freeman. The change in pace for the series with Banning's character on the run, is a noble attempt to breathe new life into the series giving the character a deeper layer while creating a more complexed situation where Banning is fighting to prove his innocence while protecting the President at the same time. The problem is not that Angel Has Fallen tries to be different than the previous film, its that it does so while borrowing every tired and cliched subplot in the action genre to fill its story. The plot is also hard to digest in the believability department. Would people really believe Mike Banning to be plotting an assassination attempt against the President Of The United States after proving his patriotism with his previous heroic acts such as saving the previous leader twice from international terrorist groups? There is no mention of Aaron Eckhart's character in the new film either especially after playing such a prominent role in the first two movies. Angel Has Fallen tries its best to be a different type of sequel than London Has Fallen while giving more depth to the character of Mike Banning, but the film still comes across as being a mediocre and uninspired effort.
As far as the acting performances go, Gerard Butler once again delivers a strong performance with his charisma as an action star shining through. Audiences are once again sold by his gripping performance as a loyal Secret Service agent desperate to stay in the field as he's not ready for a permanent desk job. Butler does a good job showing his character as being worn out from his experiences in the previous two films as he's addicted to pain medication for his health issues, which he keeps from both President Trumbull and his wife. Butler gives whats perhaps his most emotional performance out of the three films to date and does a very good job at giving Mike Bannings character more of a complex. Morgan Freeman does a good job reprising his role as President Trumbull, bringing his character full circle from Speaker Of The House To Vice President and now ends his arc as the successor to President Asher played by Aaron Eckhart. Freeman delivers a classy performance as usual, though his character feels extremely wasted here making it seem like Freeman only returned for consistency sake as well as getting a nice paycheck. Trumball starts off as being promising as the new President then is taken out of the film for 90 percent of the duration after with his only purpose being to reassure everyone that Banning's character is innocent and loyal to the Secret Service. Danny Huston does a solid job playing the films antagonist Wade Jennings, though one saw his characters twist coming a mile away as it was obvious from the start with how much they were building his character arc up with Banning. Piper Perabo does solid playing Butler's wife Leah Banning, though she doesn't match the presence Radha Mitchell left in the previous two films with the same role. Perhaps the lack of development for her character besides being the helpless wife hoping that her husband survives his mission was the reason Mitchell didn't return. Tim Blake Nelson and Jada Pinkett Smith deliver strong performances despite the fact that their characters are extremely cliched and generic. Nelson feels like the typical character in an action movie that deliberately goes against logic and fails to agree with the most logical people in the room. Pinkett's character is the typical FBI agent or authoritative figure, who doesn't know any better other than to accuse the main character (Whose obviously innocent) of wrongdoing and later realizing they made a mistake. Out of all the supporting characters, Nick Nolte delivers the strongest performance as Banning's retired Vietnam Vet dad, who helps prove Banning's innocence while admitting regret for not being there for him his whole life. Despite the majority of the characters being poorly written or cardboard cutouts of other generic characters in an action flick, the acting from the cast as a whole remains strong with everyone delivering believable performances.
In terms of directing, Ric Roman Raugh takes the directing chair from Babak Najafi who helmed London Has Fallen previously. While his directing is reasonably effective, he's not skilled at working the camera in terms of directing kinetic action like Antoine Fuqua is as proven by his work on Olympus Has Fallen. With Olympus, Fuqua took a screenplay that was non-original in every sense of the word and built a tense atmosphere around it with a healthy dose of patriotism and appealing stars in the main roles. One could essentially say that Olympus was Die Hard in the White House with Fuqua giving it its own flavor. Nothing about the first film screamed originality, but he took all the ingredients of a successful action movie and put them together to make an effective thriller, that action junkies could get behind. London Has Fallen lacked Fuqua's touch of creating suspense and effective cinematography though Najafi did a decent job of trying to remain consistent with his style of directing. Raugh's directing isn't as strong as the first two with his camera work mostly being all over the place with scenes including the camera zooming in on Morgan Freeman's face during the exciting drone sequence as well as action sequences being too zoomed in and motionally filmed. The films main drone sequence is impressive though nothing tops the White House siege from the first movie. The films pacing is slower than the previous films as it allows the audience to become more connected with Banning's character, creating a more emotional journey for the audience as they witness an aging Secret Service Agent go on what's most likely his last mission before settling down for the desk job offered to him when all is said and done.
The films screenplay by Robert Mark Kamen, Matt Cook, and director Ric Roman Raugh is average at best, deserving props for trying to expand on Banning's character while utilizing every major story and character cliche in the book. The film literally feels like Olympus Has Fallen mixed with The Fugitive and U.S Marshals with more effort thrown at the screen compared to the last film, but little inspiration to make it truly work. The writing despite noble attempts to bring something new to the table with the films main plot, is uninspired for the most part. How many times does the audience need to be subjected to the main subplot involving the close friend/partner later revealed to be the films main antagonist? The twist and turns involving those in the US Government involved in Trumbull's assassination attempt has been done before in other movies with the first Olympus Has Fallen being a prime example. As stated before, the believability in regards to everyone assuming that Banning would suddenly turn on the Government after saving his country twice in the past is hard to swallow and comes off as being laughable at times. Butler has stated that he wanted this film to be darker than the others and more personal with a character driven story in the same style as Logan.
If that was the case then this film failed at being effective like that story. The subplot with Banning and his father played by Nick Nolte, is a nice touch with the latter delivering a perfect balance of humor and emotion to his part, though it feels tacked on given Banning's past or family tree was never mentioned in the previous movies. As a whole, the script is an improvement over London Has Fallen's screenplay because it attempts to go deeper with its plot and characters. The problem is the script feels like the writers watched a ton of movies with similar plots and slapped together every major cliched subplot, generic twist, and characters in the action genre making it feel fushed.
Despite some noteworthy moments and reasonably decent action sequences, Angel Has Fallen is a mediocre threequel, that provides a mediocre conclusion to a mediocre action franchise. There's nothing about the first movie that makes it a great film nor iconic enough to warrant its own action movie trilogy. Olympus was just an entertaining yet silly action movie, that managed to work because it had a strong director and cast behind it. It was the R rated action movie, that audiences were craving for at the time though if they were to get a glimpse of what the success of the first movie would lead to now, they'd probably develop a case of buyers remorse. The plot for Angel is ultimately predictable and lacks heart to make it really take off the ground. The film suffers from the symptoms of the audience has already seen it before there being no real surprises left in this story to deliver. The audience could care less what happens to Mike Banning at the conclusion of the film because he was never a truly well-thought out nor developed character in the first place. He often felt like a cheap and generic minute version of John McClane put into an impossible scenario, that becomes the ultimate test of his characters strength and courage. Banning despite being badass in the first movie is no McClane (Or Butler is no Bruce Willis), and his character isn't compelling enough to warrant a trilogy of his. Angel Has Fallen will only please die hard fans of the first two movies as it offers the same style of forgettable entertainment, that does what its set out to do but only does so mildly. It offers a serviceable finish to its story, though the problem is the foundation of that story wasn't anything special to begin with. If the latter sequels prove anything, it's that the heart and craftsmanship that went into making the first film a hit with audiences has fallen.
Final Verdict: Only watchable if you're a fan of Olympus Has Fallen Or London Has Fallen. If not then skip or just rewatch the first one again, you won't be missing much.
If that was the case then this film failed at being effective like that story. The subplot with Banning and his father played by Nick Nolte, is a nice touch with the latter delivering a perfect balance of humor and emotion to his part, though it feels tacked on given Banning's past or family tree was never mentioned in the previous movies. As a whole, the script is an improvement over London Has Fallen's screenplay because it attempts to go deeper with its plot and characters. The problem is the script feels like the writers watched a ton of movies with similar plots and slapped together every major cliched subplot, generic twist, and characters in the action genre making it feel fushed.
Final Verdict: Only watchable if you're a fan of Olympus Has Fallen Or London Has Fallen. If not then skip or just rewatch the first one again, you won't be missing much.
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