Movies: Olympus Has Fallen

Score:  ***1/2 out of ***** (B-)

Long Story Short:  At last, a fun, ambitious action film comes out with stars who aren't over the hill!  Butler and Eckhart make for likeable protagonists, while a dash of Freeman adds (artificial) weight and the villain is quite timely.  Olympus has its fair share of flaws throughout, but the taking of the White House itself is enough to get action fans to the theater, and once there they will enjoy a nice popcorn film.


While the weather is only now starting to look a little more like spring, the Hollywood schedule was undeterred by this and its spring lineup is well underway.  A number of action films have already come out in 2013, most of which did not appeal to me (Bullet to the Head with Sylvester Stallone? Ugh), were critically trashed and even failed at the box office.  However, it's been a little while since I've seen a straight up Die Hard-style action film, so when I heard about Olympus Has Fallen, I was interested.  It got decent reviews (for the genre), had a neat premise, and star actors.  The film was directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and stars Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, and Aaron Eckhart.

Olympus begins in a winter vacation spot with a regular family - that has a contingent of bodyguards.  That's because this regular family is POTUS (Eckhart) and his wife and son; the bodyguards, particularly Banning (Butler), are like an extended family here.  Unfortunately, a tragedy occurs and Banning, although he is not at fault, is removed from the Secret Service.  A year and a half later, with Banning working at Treasury, a delegation from South Korea comes to visit the White House.  During the visit, the appearance of a rogue aircraft triggers a well-choreographed, all-out assault on the White House, and the military is unable to arrive before these terrorists wipe out local defenses and infiltrate.

Fortunately, our hero Banning is still in DC and soon becomes, with the help of acting President Speaker Trumbull (Freeman), the nation's only hope to avert catastrophe.

As you might imagine, Olympus Has Fallen is not an actors' showcase.  Nevertheless, Gerard Butler is well-cast as the hero of the film.  His physical build makes him a believable butt-kicker, and he is able to switch nicely between silent, grim focus and warm, friendly guardian to POTUS's son.  Butler's delivery of John McClane-esque humor isn't as effective, but he's certainly a guy you can root for.  Aaron Eckhart is similarly well-cast as the President; really, both characters are split 60-40 between tough guy and family figure (that's Butler; it's 40-60 for Eckhart).

Morgan Freeman is once again the Voice of Authority - specifically, the Speaker of the House who becomes acting President with POTUS and the Vice out of action.  Freeman is another puzzle piece but, maybe just because his role is smaller and simpler, it seemed like a paycheck role for him.  Eckhart just seemed to be working harder, whereas Freeman rode the power of his mere presence.  Filling out the rest, Dylan McDermott plays the nasty little snake with conviction; and Rick Yune, who reprises his role from the 2002 James Bond film, Die Another Day.

OK, OK, what really matters here?  The action!  Fortunately, Olympus Has Fallen succeeds overall in this aspect.  The assault on the White House is especially good; the writers clearly put as much thought into this as they did the rest of the film combined.  The level of tension in this extended scene rises at a great pace - not peaking too soon and numbing the audience to the rest of it.  At times the violence is a bit gratuitous, but overall I think going for it with the "R" rating was the right choice (also freeing characters to use choice language when needed, but it's not overdone).  After the opening assault, the action becomes more formulaic, but still entertaining.  While Banning's mastery of White House security is more than a stretch, what you actually see on screen - the fights - show him as a really good but not immortal, Chuck Norris-like killing machine.  There is virtually no humor here through the first half or so, and then the Die Hard-style banter begins between hero and villain - not nearly as effectively as its predecessor, unfortunately.

***

When I think about what score to give to a film, I balance a number of different things:  overall quality, of course (writing, acting, plot, etc.), but also how much I personally enjoyed it, as well as expectations for the film to a degree - which includes genre.  I ask myself, What were the goals of this film (or at least, what was I hoping to get out of it)?  For Olympus Has Fallen, the answer to that was basically tense, fun action and likable, not too cliched characters (and perhaps some nice explosions).  Well, Olympus succeeded pretty well on those counts.  I lowered its grade for having too many extraneous little threads that go nowhere, a dull villain (post-assault), and the suspensions of belief sometimes being a bit too much (characters being extraordinarily stupid as often as unrealistically prescient).  Still, the frame of the film is solid, with some real highlights not only in the action (again, the taking of the White House) but also in some of the personal scenes.  It's pretty simple:  if you like action films, I recommend it.  If you don't like action films, well, this one isn't going to change your mind.