London Has Fallen is a classic example of a no-one-asked-for sequel trying to ride on the coattails of its predecessor’s box-office success. The film, a follow-up to the 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, features a heavier sense of gravity due to it escalating the conflict to a city-wide scale and also because of the extra presidents thrown into its plot. Essentially though it stills falls under the same premise of its ancestor and further exploits itself as a mindless action film.
Gerard Butler reprises his role of Mike Banning, a recommissioned Secret Service agent to U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart). We learn from the onset that Mike is an expectant father contemplating on resigning from his job but when the British Prime Minister mysteriously “dies in his sleep”, Mike is forced to escort the president to the PM’s funeral to be held in Buckingham Palace. They are also to be joined by the prominent world leaders from the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and U.S.), making it the “most protected event on Earth.” Surely, everyone, except Mike Banning, ignores the fact that this is a glaring scheme to assassinate the presidents and soon enough, in an orchestral fashion, bombs are detonated, cars go up in smoke, presidents are killed one-by-one (save for President Asher who manages to escape) and every known landmark in the British capital is blown to pieces (yes, London Bridge is falling down and it’s sub-par CGI). What follows is formulaic “action-chase-small break-repeat” as Mike Banning tries to return his employer to safety.
Even for action movies, there has to be some hint of grounded logic — things should make sense even to some degree. This is where the film fails. As a viewer, you will get to question the film all throughout. Seven countries are basically falling down on their knees, witnessing their presidents getting murdered by these unknown terrorists. How come half of the terrorists are disguised as guards without going undetected? Why is the MI6 easily paralyzed by these terrorists? How come there was no autopsy done on the PM’s body to clear any suspicions of poisoning? And please, there is no way a person could’ve been left unscathed after a hundred-foot helicopter crash.
The sequel brings back the main cast from the first film only to deny them of anything new to do (Aaron Eckhart is still the president/damsel-in-distress that needs saving). The only good thing in his arc is that the dynamics between him and Gerard Butler is enjoyable as their relationship is more of a bromance rather than a boss-employee type. Angela Bassett as Lynne Jacobs, the Director of the United States Secret Service, is included in some action sequences but is underused in general. Morgan Freeman as Allan Trumbull has moved up the notch from House Speaker to U.S. Vice President but is still stuck in the same control room throughout the entire film. Morgan Freeman does great given the little he has to do but I would rather listen to him dramatically reading Justin Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself’ than watch him play the same role over and over again.
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Gerard Butler fuels the high-octane excitement in this film. He is disgustingly violent yet likable; plus, really pulls-off his stunts. Butler/King Leonidas should stick with this element, keep on firing and stabbing people that come in his way instead of doing rom-coms and attempting to transform himself into an Egyptian god.
The action sequences, though highly derivative of 80’s classic action flicks like Die Hard, are engrossing and there’s no lying about it. Director Babak Najafi at some point even infuses POV shooting in narrow alleyways and corridors (Call of Duty comes to mind) in a long one-shot take. (Apparently this is the cool thing nowadays.)
But even with its slew of hard-hitting action sequences, expectations of popcorn fun set by the “better” first film fall flat with this sequel. London Has Fallen tries to up the excitement by expanding its action to a larger world but ends up laying an inferior and predictable story instead. Is there going to be a follow-up of *Insert major city* Has Fallen to this franchise? The producers can’t seem to decide if they want to give more ideas to terrorists with their films so they’ll just resort to a vague rushed final scene that hints at the possibility.
https://youtu.be/3AsOdX7NcJs
