Olympus Has Fallen was a good enjoyable action flick. Gerard Butler is always a joy to watch and it wasn't all action, there was a depth. It came out at a similar time to White House Down, though, so it's impact was a little watered down, although still good. This, the second in the series, promised to be a good sequel, from the trailer, moving the action to a European city (London), rather than one building.
Sadly, it definitely fell into the sequel trap. Cashing in on the first, and not really thinking it through. The plot is simple: "bad guy of 'generic extreme Muslim' type (as opposed to 'generic eastern European/new cold war type') was targeted in a drone strike by the USA, and his family killed, he seeks revenge, so plots to take out all the world leaders." As you do.
The Direction was poor. I note that Olympus has Fallen had Antoine Fuqua at the helm, no wonder it was so much better!! Emotion, tension and grit. If you are looking for that again... watch something else. This tried too hard and missed. Tension was non-existent, bad things happening were telegraphed, and there just wasn't enough background or fact-based-action (believability).
So, a "State Funeral" is put on for a Prime Minister who died in office (that doesn't actually happen so the whole plot is flimsy) and all the World Leaders attend. Things go wrong... but of course the US security team are the only ones who are any good at their jobs, have done any research or actually stick by their charges. The French President is left on his own in a boat presumably taking in the view, the German Leader looks like she's standing isolated near a crowd, doing the tourist thing watching changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (!?!) and the Japanese Leader is just stuck in a traffic jam with one driver in the car... But Butler is the best! He has a plan. The US rock!
Severe plot holes all the way through. Very little research into how things actually are in London, and the whole film suggests that our security forces are woefully ineffective. Only Banner (Butler) has any idea what is going on and orders around the SAS! Harumph. Too much American flag waving, gung-ho, cheesy macho dialogue for me, and too many improbable scenes, or consequences of actions. I realise the bad guys are meant to be really good at what they are doing but they only had two years... just no. Ridiculous examples of surviving stuff that were just daft, and shoot-em-up scenes that looked for all the world like the CGI in a Tom Clancy video game left me feeling a bit bored and disconnected. I found myself thinking, why isn't there any coverage of the countries that have lost their leaders? Why do we not see the USA on the phone to them? Why is everyone expendable - collateral damage - except the US President? What is everyone else doing whilst all this silliness is going on? Where are the Royal Family? Just too improbable to be entertaining, in my humble opinion. Some good fight scenes - hand to hand - but absolutely no feeling that Banning might actually be in any danger, or that the President was actually going to get hurt. That's not a spoiler, that's a foregone conclusion.
Banning knows where an MI5 safehouse is, security breach right there, knows the back streets of London like the back of his hand, yet makes clear mistakes in not being able to hide the president in places that might actually be secure. Oh, and the drone that is always above the President? Bit of a giveaway to his location, no? Why do the Sit Room worry where he is, if there IS a drone above the President? Is that a feasible plot tool given the scenario? Maybe they are used during finite walk-abouts and security details together with snipers on roofs, etc, but after all that has gone on, in London, ALL the time? Really?
The first half was good. Interesting enough to be mildly gripping, and flight/helicopter scenes, whilst predictable, were a little tense. The denouement; the "who to blame" portion? Wrapped up far to easily and "Hollywood" in a neat little bow with, again, shoddy writing that someone wouldn't cover their tracks, or have had an escape plan in place, or even had thought it through a little bit. Silly illogical writing. Despite all this, plot weaknesses and ridiculous dialogue not withstanding, for Saturday night viewing at home it's an okay action film, if you can suspend your incredulity. I can only give it five out of ten because of it's lack of redeeming features; some views of London were lovely, Gerard Butler is easy on the eye, and Angela Bassett and Morgan Freeman brought the acting chops and gave it some minimal range. I would summarise; typical sequel - not anywhere near as good as the first.
Sadly, it definitely fell into the sequel trap. Cashing in on the first, and not really thinking it through. The plot is simple: "bad guy of 'generic extreme Muslim' type (as opposed to 'generic eastern European/new cold war type') was targeted in a drone strike by the USA, and his family killed, he seeks revenge, so plots to take out all the world leaders." As you do.
The Direction was poor. I note that Olympus has Fallen had Antoine Fuqua at the helm, no wonder it was so much better!! Emotion, tension and grit. If you are looking for that again... watch something else. This tried too hard and missed. Tension was non-existent, bad things happening were telegraphed, and there just wasn't enough background or fact-based-action (believability).
So, a "State Funeral" is put on for a Prime Minister who died in office (that doesn't actually happen so the whole plot is flimsy) and all the World Leaders attend. Things go wrong... but of course the US security team are the only ones who are any good at their jobs, have done any research or actually stick by their charges. The French President is left on his own in a boat presumably taking in the view, the German Leader looks like she's standing isolated near a crowd, doing the tourist thing watching changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (!?!) and the Japanese Leader is just stuck in a traffic jam with one driver in the car... But Butler is the best! He has a plan. The US rock!
Severe plot holes all the way through. Very little research into how things actually are in London, and the whole film suggests that our security forces are woefully ineffective. Only Banner (Butler) has any idea what is going on and orders around the SAS! Harumph. Too much American flag waving, gung-ho, cheesy macho dialogue for me, and too many improbable scenes, or consequences of actions. I realise the bad guys are meant to be really good at what they are doing but they only had two years... just no. Ridiculous examples of surviving stuff that were just daft, and shoot-em-up scenes that looked for all the world like the CGI in a Tom Clancy video game left me feeling a bit bored and disconnected. I found myself thinking, why isn't there any coverage of the countries that have lost their leaders? Why do we not see the USA on the phone to them? Why is everyone expendable - collateral damage - except the US President? What is everyone else doing whilst all this silliness is going on? Where are the Royal Family? Just too improbable to be entertaining, in my humble opinion. Some good fight scenes - hand to hand - but absolutely no feeling that Banning might actually be in any danger, or that the President was actually going to get hurt. That's not a spoiler, that's a foregone conclusion.
Banning knows where an MI5 safehouse is, security breach right there, knows the back streets of London like the back of his hand, yet makes clear mistakes in not being able to hide the president in places that might actually be secure. Oh, and the drone that is always above the President? Bit of a giveaway to his location, no? Why do the Sit Room worry where he is, if there IS a drone above the President? Is that a feasible plot tool given the scenario? Maybe they are used during finite walk-abouts and security details together with snipers on roofs, etc, but after all that has gone on, in London, ALL the time? Really?
The first half was good. Interesting enough to be mildly gripping, and flight/helicopter scenes, whilst predictable, were a little tense. The denouement; the "who to blame" portion? Wrapped up far to easily and "Hollywood" in a neat little bow with, again, shoddy writing that someone wouldn't cover their tracks, or have had an escape plan in place, or even had thought it through a little bit. Silly illogical writing. Despite all this, plot weaknesses and ridiculous dialogue not withstanding, for Saturday night viewing at home it's an okay action film, if you can suspend your incredulity. I can only give it five out of ten because of it's lack of redeeming features; some views of London were lovely, Gerard Butler is easy on the eye, and Angela Bassett and Morgan Freeman brought the acting chops and gave it some minimal range. I would summarise; typical sequel - not anywhere near as good as the first.