London has Fallen

So back in 2013 I saw Olympus has Fallen on Netflix. I thought it was incredibly over the top and basically Die Hard in the White House. I enjoyed it because it wasn't anything more than an action movie with an excessive amount of blood and violence and while it was predictable, you could at least turn off your brain and watch shit go down. The issues I had with the film were that the characters were a little bit boring, and it was a little too excessive in my opinion.

The sequel, London Has Fallen really didn't change anything from the first one except its about 20

minutes shorter and its set in London. And to be honest, I actually had more fun with London Has Fallen.

London has Fallen follows the story of Mike Banning (played by Gerard Butler) the head of the President's (played by Aaron Eckhart) protection detail. The movie doesn't take long to reintroduce this relationship and I'll give them credit, they evolve well. In the previous movie this was a tense relationship because Eckhart's wife died in a car crash and he blamed Banning. But in this film these two are as thick as thieves and it actually makes for an interesting duo.

They reintroduce Morgan Freeman who is now the Vice President which once again kind of lowers the stakes of this movie. I mentioned in my review of Olympus has Fallen that if the President and the Vice President ended up dying in that movie, we'd be okay because Morgan Freeman would have been the next in the line of succession. And in this movie, Morgan Freeman is even closer to the Presidency and gives a great speech about how America is great and will not be bullied by terrorists. I'm not saying I want Eckhart to die, I'm just saying I think we'd be okay.

While the movie starts with some underlying character background like Banning and his wife having a kid and him contemplating resigning from the Secret Service, not much time is wasted as the Prime Minister of Great Britain unexpectedly dies and all the world leaders are called to London to attend his funeral. Now if this sounds like a huge trap, well you're right.

Shit hits the fan very quickly. A great big shoot out occurs, lots of explosions happen and more than a couple of world leaders are actually brutally murdered, except of course the President. However, Banning and the President soon find themselves alone and on the run in the streets of London.

The funny part about this movie is just how compromised the law enforcement agencies of London are its actually kind of laughable. While there were a laughable amount of terrorists that take over the White House, there are an even more ridiculous number of terrorists posing as London Police, American Special Forces, British Intelligence agents. Like this isn't just a terrorist attack, this is a full on invasion. And I get it, they needed to up the stakes and give Gerard Butler more to shoot at. But really the amount of bad guys in this movie is really just ridiculous.

And what's more ridiculous is how many Gerard Butler is able to kill.

There is actually a scene that is out of nowhere kind of artistic in its execution. Gerard Butler is basically doing a head on assault on this building where he has been told has about a hundred terrorists in it. What does Gerard say? Well they should have brought more. Then he goes Leroy Jenkins in an actually really cool tracking shot where he's shooting guys like he's on a kill streak in Call of Duty.

In fact I realized at a certain point that this movie is just a video game. I've run across a couple of these movies. They're not overly complicated, they don't have a lot of twists and turns, they just give you a character, say he needs to go from point A to point B and you watch him shoot his way through wave upon wave of bad guys in his path until he achieves it.

And that's really all London Has Fallen is. Its not complex, it doesn't have too many, if any, great twists or turns, doesn't change up the story too much, and it doesn't expect too much of itself.

Now its still not a great film, but at the end of the day I have to ask myself, was I entertained by this movie. And the answer is, yeah I was. Its not Shakespeare, its not anything that is incredibly memorable, its just Gerard Butler building up his kill count in a round of Call of Duty multiplayer set in London instead of the White House. Its so mindless and so simple that I can't really say it was bad. Because I really don't think it was trying to be good, at least not the traditional kind of movie good.

I think they could have done more with this movie. When I first saw the trailers I obviously knew that Gerard Butler was going to be trying to protect the President but I was interested to see if they would run across any of the other world leaders. Maybe these world leaders and their protective staff would have different motives and make the landscape even more complicated. Instead all the world leaders die and its just Gerard and Eckhart trying to survive.

Now they exploit that by making this movie almost laughably short. Again, its not complicated. I got to a point in the movie where I thought we were reaching the half way point and instead the movie was wrapping up. The movie knew what it was out to accomplish and instead of trying to do too much, they kept it simple and they kept it short.

London has Fallen is a special kind of movie that I think we need sometimes in America. I would never knock someone for getting pumped up from a movie like this and having pride in their country. I think too often we think that Patriotism is a bad thing. And this movie has those moments. Its cheesy over the top but I think that's necessary sometimes. People want to come out of movies feeling good.

The issue you could run into with London has Fallen is thinking that problems in the world should just be dealt with with guns and shooting the bad guys when things are not that black and white. Its when people take a simplistic idea like this and think that is the way the world works. It when pride in country turns to disgust at others and people that are different.

And at the end of the day you have to remember... this is just a stupid mindless action movie that allows you to turn your brain off and watch Gerard Butler shoot some terrorists. Don't read into it, its not worth that much.

Overall, London has Fallen is a simple action movie. Plain and simple. You're not going to get any intrigue, just a video of Call of Duty with some decent action and good effects. Butler and Eckhart do a decent enough so you are entertained by the characters. Its a good movie you might put on the background or watch on Cable, but don't go out of your way to see London has Fallen. Its entertaining but for the most simplistic reasons. There are better movies out there. Go watch those.

However, since this movie made a lot of money I am looking forward to seeing how they up the ante. First it was just the White House, then its all of London, what's next?

That's my review on London Has Fallen. Let me know what you think? Do you think this movie takes patriotism too far? Do you think movies like this are necessary sometimes? Let me know your thoughts. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. All I wanted was a video of the action sequences in this movie and the voice from Halo just saying "Headshot" or "Killtacular" while he goes on his kill streak. Can someone make that? Until then, here's Gerard Butler answered Google Autocomplete questions... Cause that's cool I guess. Enjoy!