Years after the assassination attempt made on his life, U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) are still together, joking around with one another and, generally, seeming like the best of friends. After all, the worst that they ever had to face came and went, so for now on, they’ll just live out the rest of the presidency in absolute and complete peace.
However, that all changes when Asher is called to appear at a funeral for the British Prime Minister, and all hell breaks loose. Major tourist attractions start blowing up, people start dying and terrorists begin to pop-up left and right. Though they hit a few close calls, Banning and Asher are able to get to safety, and wait to see what their next best move is. Even though it’s absolute chaos in London, Banning believes that the best tactic is to get Asher, as well as himself, to the British embassy where they’ll hopefully be safe and tucked away from the terrorists who want to kill them, as well as anyone else that they see fit.
People will mistake a movie like “London Has Fallen” as a “serious one,” and it makes sense. Just like its predecessor, it is dealing with some very realistic situations, where gore, violence and death abound, and not really trying to have a great time with them. Instead, it’s trying to be a very dramatic, emotional and flag-waving patriotic movie about the triumph and the spirit of the citizens of the United States and how terrorists, no matter what shape, color or religion they come in, will always fall prey to our power.
Clearly, there’s an audience out there for this kind of movie, and given today’s political race, it’s almost no surprise that a movie like “London Has Fallen” actually exists.
It’s one where instead of really getting down to the idea of why someone would retaliate to a botched drone strike, or why certain political ideologies, whether violent or not, exist, it’s more concerned with blowing things and people up. Nothing’s wrong with this, as evidenced in this film, as well as “Olympus Has Fallen”; there can be some fun in watching as terrorists get mowed down, all in the name of the red, white and blue. And, while I’m talking about that movie, it’s actually a lot better than people give it credit for; sure, it’s overly serious in a sort of corny, 80s movie kind of way, but it’s so unabashedly passionate about what it’s doing that it’s hard not to get wrapped up in all of the grisly action that takes place. And, even though it’s been a near three years later, it’s surprising how dated the movie may appear to be, given that there’s clearly a climate out there in today’s society that isn’t about shooting first and asking questions later.
Which is why, with a movie like “London Has Fallen” it’s hard not to think about the real life situations and issues countries are currently facing. Whether they be relating to religion, warfare or just general politics, “London Has Fallen” takes place in a world that is almost a tad too real to the one we currently live in, and it is why this movie can be a tad hard to get through, what with all of the innocents being mindlessly killed, even if it wants us to all have fun and, most importantly, enjoy ourselves.
After all, this is what going to the movies is all about, and that’s why “London Has Fallen” can occasionally be a stirring, exciting action-thriller.
Director Babak Najafi knows that his strong suit isn’t really the drama, or the characters, or the humor of the script, but instead, the action. That’s why, when the going gets going and the action starts up, “London Has Fallen” can be a pretty fun movie. Its characters may be rote, its one-liners may be cheesy and its politics may certainly be troubling, but when it pushes all that aside and decides to just let the guns, knives, explosions and muscles speak for themselves, it’s difficult to be bored. The first movie, in my mind, is still better, but there’s a certain appeal of watching a half-hour action-thriller that does what it needs to do and is over before you know it.
This is what really works to the movie’s advantage. Though it features a heavy onslaught of solid actors like Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Robert Forster, Jackie Earle Haley, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, and, uhh, sure, Gerard Butler, none of them are really doing anything worthy of their talents. Is it a tad disappointing to watch Oscar-nominees and, in some cases, winners, to sit around a desk, in a four-by-four room, look at a screen and talk about what’s going on with the plot, while occasionally trading witty barbs? Yes, but at the same time, “London Has Fallen” doesn’t focus too much on this aspect to remind us of this fact.
Instead, it just wants to give us plenty of action, excitement and politics that are as dated as you can possibly get without humming Hulk Hogan’s theme song. This may tick some people off, but for me, I’m fine with it. Just don’t expect me to remember what everybody said or what the point of it all was, because really, I won’t remember.
I’ll just be fine with having seen an all right piece of action-thriller.
Consensus: Over-the-top, incredibly serious and corny, “London Has Fallen” is exactly what you’d expect, given its predecessor, but it’s still fun and exciting enough that it almost doesn’t matter just how troublesome its politics are.
5 / 10Dan O’Neill is currently a Journalism student at Temple University. He can be reached at tuf73940@temple.edu, or at his blog, dtmmr.com
