Angel Has Fallen

This review may contain spoilers!

Olympus Has Fallen was a great film but none of these sequels have justified being made. I would give Angel Has Fallen a 3.5/10.

Angel Has Fallen is the third film in the series and follows Mike Banning, a Secret Services agent who is framed for an attempted assassination attempt on the President of the United States. The entire feature revolves around his desperate mission to clear his name before the true terrorists catch up both him and the President. While I have little to say on the plot itself the film does manage to execute some sharp moments, such as the initial execution of the antagonists' plan or the intensity from Banning as he attempts to stay one step ahead of the FBI and terrorist element.

Gerard Butler, who played Mike Banning, has done good work as this protagonist for a while now and continues to keep the role consistent; Butler really embodies the unswerving loyalty and dedication that is at the heart of this role. Jada Pinkett Smith, who played Agent Thompson, was such a cool new character that could really have escalated the action somewhat; Smith had such a tough, uncompromising presence that you felt she was a force to be reckoned with in any scene she was in. Tim Blake Nelson, who played Vice President Kirby, was not the antagonist I expected to really like but he certainly stood out to me in this film; Nelson took his career politician and made a seriously duplicitous snake out of him.

However, the best performance came from Nick Nolte, who played Clay Banning. This film really suffered from such a dry story that didn't even seem particularly interested in what it was saying. Then Nolte hit the screen and I was surprised at just how things started to liven up. As a character Clay Banning is really a bit manic, he has a deep running sense of paranoia and spouts a number of conspiracy theories throughout the feature. I really enjoyed how much fun Nolte had with this, getting worked up and taking out scores of mercenaries in a manner you don't really expect. More than that watching the dynamic as he tries to move away from reluctant father to a present one, becoming an actual member of the Banning family is pretty heartwarming to watch.

This film just does not care about its own story and it showed from start to finish. There's a lot here to unpack so I'll just do my best to break down the significant elements at play. The entire film revolves around a concept that is hard to swallow after the last two films, depicting Banning as a 'traitor' is a hard sell at best and the plot is constantly inventing reasons for him to remain a fugitive that don't always work well. Another element of this film is that Banning's health has deteriorated since the second film and he's not telling anyone. Now this is a big point of issue for a lot of reasons but my big one is this; I think storylines that hinge on a character not communicating with other characters as a matter of pride or because it's convenient for others not to know is a lazy story, always has been and always will be. To make matters worse Banning's health is depicted as really bad in the first act of the film so that we really understand it, but after that they only show it when it's convenient in the second act and it's not really discussed much at all in the third. The entire political landscape that leads to the antagonist, the vice president, taking over and attempting to change policy in an extreme way is quite over the top; and worse even when the plan has been exposed by the FBI the antagonists decide they're still going through with the plan because 'they got a job to finish'. From start to finish this film is tying itself in knots trying to make something stick and make sense, all the while you can't help feeling bored by the generic action plot emerging that bears little resemblance to the excellence that was Olympus Has Fallen. The cinematography in this film was shocking to say the least, there were a number of close ups used in scenes that didn't really demand them that were framed really uncomfortably. The special effects for the film looked like something a direct to DVD film could muster, with a major building collapse looking like as much work was done as the budget could allow and a rooftop fight scene at the end that had some of the worst green screen backing I've seen in a while. The score for the film is a grim droning that is meant to make us feel the ever present danger but for me just became trifling back ground noise that had very little work put into it.

Piper Perabo, who played Leah Banning, is one of the most forgettable roles in the film; Perabo just has little chemistry with Butler and she only really fills the role of damsel in distress which became boring quickly. Morgan Freeman, who played Allan Trumbull, just didn't have the same interesting dynamic as Eckhart did with the President role; Freeman is constantly giving little speeches that feel very empty and meaningless and don't serve as moments of inspiration or guidance as they should. Danny Huston, who played Wade Jennings, seems pretty tired of playing the same boring military man antagonist as I am of watching it; Huston gives such a confused performance in this film playing more to his role's obsession/friendship with Banning than any other aspect of his role which really just doesn't play out well. Lance Reddick, who played Secret Services Director David Gentry, gives a pretty listless performance of a generic security agent; Reddick's role just feels like a role written to be a shallow clone of Banning and you never really feel like Reddick makes the role his own.