ARTNEWSPRESS: Synopsis: After saving the world twice, Secret Service agent Mike Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President of the United States. On the run, he has to fight foes who wish to silence him for good, all while trying to prove his innocence and stop an impending war that could shake the world
Review: The first two entries in the “Has Fallen” series — “Olympus Has Fallen” and “London Has Fallen” — have found places in the hearts of action junkies by once again proving that all any American should ever need to defend their homeland is a 5-o’clock shadow, a laissez-faire attitude towards property damage and an intense sense of patriotism. You wouldn’t be remiss in entering this third entry, ANGEL HAS FALLEN, expecting to see the exact same thing from what has become the most shrug-worthy action franchise ever. But never in my days did I expect to leave this movie and be surprised that, given all the spraying of bullets and absurdly-large explosions, the one thing that I enjoyed most about a Gerard Butler action movie was the attention to the lead character at its core.
Now, don’t get me wrong: ANGEL HAS FALLEN is by no means a smart movie, and it’s even a few checkmarks away from being a good one. But what becomes clear by the early parts of the threequel’s first act is that the filmmakers had no intention of repeating what came before, wherein a foreign agency quickly swoops in to disrupt the Western ideology with fire and blood. Rather, the trend is somewhat bucked by the attention being placed squarely on Butler’s Mike Banning, who after three movies finally starts to feel like a real person.
After saving the President of the United States (played by Aaron Eckhart in the past movies) and the world, twice, Banning is starting to feel the pressure. His back is going out and he’s plagued by headaches, resorting to taking heavy doses of painkillers to ease the pain. He’s not hanging on the side of rushing cars to shoot at terrorists, nor is he winning fights all too easily. He’s exhausted, tired, but still trying to decide if it’s time to settle for a desk job. That’s right. Butler’s character in this movie is, for the most part, and three-dimensional character. What is going on?!
But this is a Gerard Butler action movie, so some shit has got to blow up and it must happen spectacularly. Soon, Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of President Alan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman, who should just play the president in everything), which happens when a parade of drones crashes around a lake where the sun never shines, causing a massive array of explosions, killing everyone except Banning and Trumbull. As anyone who sees the movie will come to learn, it’s not by bullet, knife, or beatdown that most of the bad guys die, but seemingly through numerous, massive explosions hitting anywhere where people happen to be standing.
Once on the run, Banning must fight to prove his innocence, all while a malicious group of baddies – led by one major baddie (Danny Huston) – hunts him down to close up loose ends, and as the government – represented by FBI agent Helen Thompson (Jada Pinkett Smith) – also tracks him down. Yeah, not exactly breaking any action-thriller rules with this one, but director Ric Roman Waugh tries to recall the grounded, taut action of Antoine Fuqua’s first outing, with more gritty action scenes, plenty of shaky-cam and making it more about Banning than anything else. Waugh did much of the same with his under-looked 2017 movie, SHOT CALLER, showcasing some brutal violence with the compromised characters shining through. He gets out of Butler the actor’s best work in the series so far, putting him through increasingly tough scenarios that begin to weigh on him all through the end.
Waugh’s action scenes certainly have more edge to them than the mind-numbing, overly-CGI-ed messes of the previous outing, with some of the best moments taking place at night and favoring old-school stunt work than visual effects. Mixing in the action is also a surprising amount of humor, like when Butler is paired with master curmudgeon Nick Nolte (playing his father, Clay). One scene has Mike taking out guys in a forest as Clay blasts explosives all over the place with reckless, perhaps gleeful abandon and disregard for where his son is in the chaos. Moments like this don’t make up much of the movie, sadly, with the series’ trademark, Sci-Fi-Channel-movie visual effects coming in and mugging up the scenery, as numerous scenes take place on cheap sets with off-putting use of green screen fleshing out the drab backgrounds.
As noted before, the writing from Robert Mark Kamen, Matt Cook, and Waugh won’t convert anyone who is not a passionate action junkie, and indeed, what stops the movie from being right at the level of “good” is (aside from the crappy visual effects and lighting) a story that acknowledges a character going through a crisis at its core — in almost no way giving him challenging material to work through. The best scenes working for the narrative come when Banning discusses with his dad the tolls serving your country can take or the clashing of those same ideals with Huston’s Wade Jennings. Other than that, Banning doesn’t do much to prove his innocence and dedication other than killing everyone around him, nor do characters come to logical conclusions unless they are presented with them right in their faces. Characters make terrible decisions, with very little skill or grace to anything anyone does, with Huston’s final plan simply coming down to, “Fuck it, let’s just kill everyone.” It’s a mixture of both stupid and kind of ballsy, showing a domestic terrorist have such little regard for fellow citizens. But, again, stupid.
But the movie, for all its clichés, faults, gaps in logic and truly horrendous use of unnatural lighting and visual effects that make some scenes look destined for straight-to-DVD, there are admirable qualities to ANGEL HAS FALLEN that may surprise returning viewers. Banning feels more fleshed out and faces a foe who challenges his own perspectives, and he gets a chance to reflect on his life, mostly thanks to the inclusion of Nolte as his dad, with the two having fun chemistry that provides a lightness none of the other movies had. I don’t know if I would say ANGEL IS FALLEN is the best of the series, but it’s certainly the most different of the three, if only in small doses. For a movie that could’ve easily pandered to fans of the first two by doing the same thing, this third entry in the most mediocre of action franchises is almost admirable enough to be recommendable. Almost.
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Matt Rooney
