Review of Olympus Has Fallen (2013) by Do You Even Jay C — 27 Nov 2013

*THE OFFICIAL BETTER THAN JUNO SEAL*.

You know that one movie where you thought it would be a PG-13 fun film that didn't that itself seriously, but then blood splatters everywhere and it does take itself seriously. This is that movie. Olympus Has Fallen is a fail on every conceivable level. It rips off Die Hard, which I didn't like at all, and Die Hard's following carbon copies. Basically, the film is Gerard Butler is a former secret service agent, who kills terrorists taking over the White House. This plot could have been done much better if not for the overly serious feel Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn's Finest) gives it. There are no good one-liners. No amount of fun. The CGI is atrocious. This film is to the action genre as to what those Katherine Heigl films are to the Rom-Coms.

The film is covered with an all star cast. From Aaron Eckhart to Morgan Freeman, this is pretty much an A list cast. Too bad they are all weighed down by a weak script that seems to have been written in 3 minutes. Gerard Butler, as our hero, has no charm, no vocal range, and no sense of fun. He seemed to have phoned in this role just to make the money, money, money, money, money, money.....MONEY! Morgan Freeman has an awesome voice, but he just plays the same role in every film. Aaron Eckhart is boring and got a woman killed just because he wouldn't raise his hands in the air. It just doesn't work. Nothing works.

The action sequences are laughable, featuring some of the worst Cgi since the beginning of the 21st century. The effects were so bad I felt like I was watching someone play a PS2 game that never hit the shelf. It's laughable and the blood in this film was shocking! I thought this film was PG-13 when I played it on "netflicks" (all rights reserved for Brendan Sullivan) Then, people get torn apart by a machine gun and it was shocking to say the least. So shocking, that I feel offended by it. The film ruthlessly killed like.....40% of the population in D.C. I don't know if this film was meant to be a precaution to a terrorist attack or to just be fun. Also, the way they Koreans enter the White House is ridiculous. So I'm supposed to believe that people who can't even make a nuclear bomb can enter the White House effortlessly? C'mon.

On the face of it, this should have been the better of the two "terrorists take the White House" movies this year, it has the more serious dramatic tone, a slightly more high-brow cast and generally it seems to want to be serious while White House Down is silly and quite fun if you're in the mood for it. The problem is that, although Olympus wants this, it doesn't really do much more than say it - it doesn't really live it (apparently the Koreans have a saying about that). As a result it actually has all the same nonsense as White House Down, but it doesn't really own it or go with it. Instead it tries to make us believe that this is serious and real and dramatic - which hurt my engagement because most of it is daft.

2/10.