Review of Olympus Has Fallen (2013) by Kenneth H — 19 Mar 2014

Wow, just when I was starting to give up on action movies. This movie was a terrific thrill ride, with great, gripping action and very good pacing. The movie is tense and visceral, and really reached me emotionally. It doesn't hold anything back, especially when it comes to bloody gun wounds and no-nonsense killings. Unusual for movies, people just shoot each other when they need to, without any hesitation or pointless speeches.

Olympus Has Fallen is basically like Die Hard in the White House. In fact, its plot and style hew a little too close to Die Hard, from the lone fly in the ointment communicating and coordinating with outside authorities, to the hero picking off goons sent to dispatch him, to the dramatic rooftop explosion that sends the hero plummeting down several floors (and just slightly injuring him). I guess I should be glad that the villains didn't magically pop up and take the hero's wife hostage, to further follow the Die Hard formula. Perhaps the movie's biggest weakness is that everything is a little too neat and formulaic, bordering on cliché. Oh, and I could have done without all that hokey patriotism.

I feel like both sides got their way when they needed to way too easily. The Korean terrorists took over the White House way too easily in my opinion - the fierce resistance they encountered notwithstanding - and they were helped out when the U.S. Army detachment sent to stop them seemed to take forever to get there. And the way they were able to pull off the takeover in the first place seems like a bit of a stretch. How were they able to get so many trained people into the United States in the first place? Their army seemed to be practically bottomless. And where did they get all those armaments? They all had automatic weapons, and they had heavy machine guns mounted in garbage trucks - how the hell were they able to get all that stuff so close to the White House in the first place?

Our lone hero, Mike Banning, also seemed to have things going his way for the most part, but thankfully the movie didn't make it too ridiculously easy for him, and the slow-but-steady progression of events as Banning made his way through the White House was spaced out and paced well enough to make it feel realistic.

One opportunity to give Banning trouble that the movie blew was with turncoat Dave Forbes going out to kill him. As Banning didn't initially know that Forbes had joined the enemy, Banning at least somewhat trusted him and let his guard down around him. Forbes could have just waited until Banning was looking in the other direction and stabbed him in the back, but instead he blew his opportunity on a slight gaffe (revealing the mysterious villain's name) that he probably could've worked his way around ("oh, he just told us his name..."). But rather than try to bluff his way out of the situation, he basically goes "ah fuck it" and unwisely lashes out at Banning in a one-on-one fistfight that he obviously has no chance of winning and quickly proceeds to lose.

Speaking of Forbes, I wish the movie had built up more of his background and offered us clues as to what made him go traitor. We get a throwaway line with Forbes accusing President Asher of promoting globalization and corporate welfare, and I think his views and motivations could've been explored more. Personally, I think there needs to be more there, because I can't imagine how even the strongest differences in political opinion could motivate a former Secret Service agent to participate in a notorious foreign terrorist's plan to hold the President hostage, compromise the country's national security, and blow up the entire United States.

There weren't really any trust issues between Banning and Acting President Allan Trumbull, nor were there any trust issues between Banning and President Asher. You would think that the movie would build up a sort of distrust and lack of cooperation between Banning and everyone else given that the prologue was supposed to be about Banning's fall from grace, but really there was just one hiccup of friction (it came from one of the military brass), which was quickly shut down by a forceful Trumbull anyway. It was as if Banning had just left the Secret Service with honor the day before. That was another potential opportunity to add some tension that the movie decided not to exploit, though I'm kinda glad it didn't because it might've come off as frustratingly frivolous given the dire circumstances they were in.

Speaking of Trumbull, I'm glad to see the movie taking care of the whole Acting President issue well. They made Trumbull's instatement as the Acting President clean and simple, rather than the drawn-out and rather bungled ways the process was handled in movies like Air Force One and 2012.

The ending was somewhat strange. We don't really see how the villain Kang Yeonsak got Asher's code - was it in a deleted scene? Also, how did Asher survive a gunshot wound to the gut? I think the movie should've just killed off Asher to make it more dramatic, and conclude with Trumbull becoming President.

Another thing: Why were all the people with the Cerberus codes together in the White House bunker anyway? The only explanation I can think of is that they were all with the President when the attack began and in the ensuing chaos they were swept up with him into the bunker, because I doubt they were explicitly thinking about the need to launch and then recall nukes.