Review of Olympus Has Fallen (2013) by Meritcoba — 08 Jan 2016

If you had any doubts that the US government forces are staffed by stupendous incompetent fools then this movie will dispel them easily as a rag tag band of Korean fanatics succeeds in overrunning the White House using the amazingly effective tactic known as frontal assault. Granted they have some inside help, but only a bunch of sheer incompetents would have failed to defend against it.

Battles between the terrorists and government forces are conducted by the participants standing up in open terrain bunching together for effective concentrated fire when it is needed. Who uses cover if you got it? Or grenades? People die by the dozens as they gun each other down in the open. The Koreans might simply have won because they have the numbers on their side, but I can't say as their strength varies from scene to scene as in one scene they dwindle to nothing but in the next their size has doubled or even quadrupled.

Throughout the movie the US forces keep showing their sheer incompetence by botching all operations. Two fighter jets intercept an unknown airplane that is headed for the white house and get shot down by gatling machine guns popping out from the side of the plane that blast the jets out of the air because they conveniently fly to the side of the plane so they can be taken by surprise. What the role of this plane is goes unexplained as it just crashes into the ground after being shot down by two other planes.

But the US is in luck as Gerard Butler, the only competent American around, happens to be working in a building close to the White House and joins the battle where the good side doesn't mistake him for an enemy(he doesn't look Asian?) while the other side does. How convenient.

If you make a simpleton action movie, the way to go would be to infuse it with some levity, for no serious acting can save a flick that tries to navigate the sea of nonsense that Olympus Has Fallen is. But it is not to be had. At the end we even get a formal presidential speech that sings the praises of American values and what not, while we just have been served one and a half hour of US incompetence. Can you make up your mind?

The acting might be okay in this movie, but boy what a boring movie this actually is. It is serious action mixed with sheer cruelty because the one excuses the other(and the other way around). If you like such than this is the movie for you. But if you really like cruelty, go watch Saw or something. I have been given to understand that it is really amusing(I personally doubt that though).

Morgan Freeman puts in a totally superfluous appearance so his face can be on the poster. I wonder at what point people will actually turn away from a movie that bills him.