The movie is
very, very bogus, but that aside, I actually liked it. The whole "one-man
army" thing is something Hollywood sometimes overplays, and no movie has
been able to get near the level of Die Hard (1988),
with Bruce Willis as the lone hero, or First
Blood (1982), with Sylvester Stallone as the lone hero/villain.
I’m not
saying Olympus Has Fallen is anywhere as good as those two, but in
its own right, it’s an okay film. All you have to do is close your eyes to the
height of unrealistic events, and you’ve got a decent movie. The plot itself is
centered on a redemption arc, as the lead, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), is a
Secret Service agent who, under his watch, saw the President’s wife die in an
accident (it was a car accident, and it wasn’t his fault).
He got
reassigned because the President found it hard to cope, as seeing Mike reminded
him of his loss. Then, on a fateful day, a man named Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune),
a North Korean terrorist, disguises himself as a South Korean ministerial aide
and somehow manages to kidnap the President by launching an attack on the White
House, forcing the President to run into his bunker with the South Korean
minister and his aides.
Now, Banning is
our lone hero in the White House who must save the President’s son and the
President himself.
My main problem
is this: if it’s that easy to take over the White House, then I’m really sorry
for America.
As far as acting
goes, Gerard Butler wasn’t the one who impressed me—it was the villain, Rick
Yune, who did the job for me in the movie. And, as usual, Morgan Freeman is
just as impressive as ever. Although, let me not be too hard on Butler; he was
okay.
The movie didn’t
do so well in general consensus when you look at its approval ratings from
critics. About half of them didn’t feel it, and you can’t blame them. This is a
movie you can only like if you hang all your senses at the door and just decide
to watch it without being too expectant.
Aaron Eckhart,
in my view, is still finding it hard to top the performance he gave us in The
Dark Knight. But notwithstanding, if you’re game for some unrealistic events in
the name of an action-packed, one-man hero movie… then this is a film you
should see. If you’re not… maybe you should skip this one.
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