London Has Fallen

I may have been the only person who was actively looking forward to this movie.

Still a bit of a mystery, even to myself, but I particularly enjoyed London Has Fallen's predecessor, Olympus Has Fallen.

It was brutal, violent, and honestly just kind of cool in a preposterous 80's action movie sense. I appreciated seeing Gerard Butler back in an ass-kicking role and the supporting cast of Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman at least felt like they brought some gravitas.

Olympus was one of those films that I realized I was part of a very small camp so I never quite defended it all too much; I was fine with letting it just be a film that I enjoyed despite what others thought and sometimes there's nothing wrong with that.

So yes, I was actually looking forward to London Has Fallen. And would it surprise you that I actually liked this one too?

Before I get into my reasoning why, which will mimic my Olympus Has Fallen review pretty closely, I have to address something that truly irks me. I've read more than one review now that states something along the lines that London Has Fallen is racist. Outside of the fact that many reviews for the film are negative, I almost 100% completely disagree with this fact. Other than a few poorly worded lines, one in particular comes to mind immediately, the film hates terrorists, not people of color. There are prominent colored people all throughout the film and there are evil white people in it too. I refuse to believe that a film that actively hates terrorists is racist just because most of those terrorists happen to be of darker complexion. When the film uses terms like "they" or "those bastards" they aren't referring to the origins or makeup of the person, but rather who they are as a character (i.e. a damn terrorist). Keep in mind that the original film had North Korean terrorists and you didn't see anyone complaining about it then did you? Now, I get that there is still rampant racism throughout our country/world today -- there really is -- but as Chris Rock explained at the Oscars: stop trying to make everything about race. It's not. And some of the highly misguided reviews for this film in this regard are a perfect example.

Tom Cruise did it first ^^

Now that rant is over, let's get to the film itself. Many reviews are ripping it apart and I can't quite understand it. Sure, it's not the best film you'll see all year, but, much in the spirit of the first, it's a preposterous action film that never quite stops moving. I can think of worse ways to spend my time. My criticisms of it would be that it was just a little too unbelievable in its set up. That's not to say the rest of the film is ultra-realistic, but the initial terrorist attack is just absurdly huge. The London Prime minister has died after surgery complications and the world leaders are rushed to London to pay their respects at his funeral (this is all in the trailers so not really a spoiler). I could have believed it if they'd all been in one location, but each leader, Japanese, Italian, French, Canadian, and German is in a completely different location as they make their way to the funeral. One is even having a private moment on a date. But yet somehow the terrorists already planned all of that for that exact moment. It's super far fetched and my initial reaction (which eventually leads to a revelation) was: why are we rushing this funeral? It's a world leader...shouldn't we at least wait until autopsy results come back? I also found the film a little mean spirited. Toward terrorists, fine, but toward civilians it seems to revel in their destruction and tonally there are some awkward scenes of destruction.

"Which appendage would
you like stabbed first?"

Rolling up under my list of not-so-surprised complaints, I also found the story and action to be fairly standard and average. So too was the first film, so I didn't think this one would be incredible, but still something to cite. Having said that, London Has Fallen is very violent and brutal, much like the first film. Gerard Butler's Mike Banning likes to get up close and personal, and has a particular affection for stabbing. Butler is entertaining in the role and seems to be enjoying himself, complete with corny one-liners. Most of the action you've seen before but he certainly has a passion behind it that makes it feel just that smidge more aggressive. I found one scene of him in a basement/hallway really impressively executed and there is a pretty long tracking shot in the streets of London that was well organized too. Aaron Eckhart is again likable as the President, though I do wish they'd given him some more action beats. Morgan Freeman is also back as the Vice President who's amounts to the person who's holding down the fort back home. Shockingly, there are several other big names that get little to no screen time (i.e. Jackie Earle Haley) and I was really baffled as to why the film put up the money on what could have been no-name parts as opposed to sinking some more money into their questionable special effects.

Somewhat questionable effects. Ex Machina this is not.

London Has Fallen doesn't need much longer of a review because if I'm up front with my readers, I'll probably enjoy it more than any of you. It's not nearly as bad as the critic reviews try to tell you, but realistically it's probably not as good as the final score I'm giving it either. An odd thing for a reviewer to admit, I realize, but I likely stand alone in my enjoyment of this quick 99 minute action flick, much like I did with it's slightly-more-enjoyable predecessor.

One of those reviews you have to take with a grain of salt and I'm sure it will be a similar situation if Los Angeles, Berlin, Rome, Sydney, or Rio ever "fall".

CONS:

• Most of the special effects are pretty bad
• Oddly seems to enjoy the destruction and deaths of civilians...just an odd tone to some of those scenes
• Nothing special in terms of its story and most of its action
• Lots of big names that didn't need to be here and probably took up budget that could have been used elsewhere
• Not a single mention of the significant events of the first film
• Absurd premise that has way too many holes/inconsistencies to get the ball rolling. Again, I beg, why couldn't the funeral waited until after the autopsy was complete?

PROS:

• I like the primary trio cast of Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman. I think they all fit into their roles well and Butler brings some fire to the action scenes
• Standard action, sure, but it's also brutal, violent, and "stabby"
• A couple action scenes really shine
• Reminds me of the action movies of old to a certain extent
• I was entertained for most of the quick run time. Once it gets started it rarely slows down

Rath's Review Score: 6.5/10