Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Antoine Fuqua

Country

USA

Cast

Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Rick Yune, Dylan McDermott, Finley Jacobsen, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Ashley Judd, Cole Hauser, Radha Mitchell, Sean O'Bryan, Lance Broadway, Tory Kittles, Keong Sim, Phil Austin, James Ingersoll, Freddy Bosche, Kevin Moon, Malana Lea, Sam Medina

Storyline

When the White House is captured by a terrorist mastermind (Rick Yune) and the President (Aaron Eckhart) is kidnapped, former Presidential Secret Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) finds himself trapped inside the building, and using his inside knowledge, he will try to rescue the President.

Opinion

Like I said time ago, 2013 was the year of films about terrorist attacks at the White House. The weird thing is that two films came out that year with the same plot, this being the first of the two. But only because it was the first one, it doesn't necessarily means it's better. If anything "Olympus Has Fallen" is even worse than "White House Down", which definitely wasn't a great film.

In fact, this film is pretty much nothing but a poor imitation of Die Hard. Even though the beginning was somehow promising, it is not exciting, and it is definitely not fun to watch.

Just like in "White House Down", the plot completely lacks in originality, it is quite unbelievable and filled with the usual clichés, not to mention the gigantic plot holes. There's so much nonsense going on, you'll get dumber by watching the film - like why on earth would the villain ask for the Cerberus code only after the hero has killed half of his men? It doesn't make any sense. The icing on the cake? The villain and his motivations are not that convincing.

So are the screenwriters to be blamed? Yes, they are, but only in part, because director Antoine Fuqua certainly didn't do anything to fix the script. He didn't even try. The film in fact is flat as a board, accomplices also are the action sequences that lack both imagination and tension, and that seem taken out straight from a video game.

And now the cast. Gerald Butler is not a likable hero, Aaron Eckhart is just whimpering the whole time - and certainly does not have Jamie Foxx's charm -, Morgan Freeman is so poor he recalls Jason Statham, and Rick Yune is not a very threatening villain. Then there is Ashley Judd that's only in the movie because they needed a pretty face, and Angela Bassett that is completely wasted in this film.