#MovieMonday: Angel Has Fallen Review: Action-Packed But Also Boring-Packed

By
George Yang
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If you’ve seen the Chinese title of the movie, you’d get a tad confused: it’s titled 全面攻占3-天使救援, which, according to our BFF Google, means “Fully Captured 3: Angel Rescue”.

Technically speaking, the translator wasn’t drunk when he translated it: it is, indeed, part three of a movie series.

But if this is part three of a franchise, then why isn’t there a “3” in the English title?

That’s because they’re trying to be creative.

The first movie is called Olympus Has Fallen, the second is London Has Fallen and of course, the third would be Angel Has Fallen.

Before anything, here’s some context.

2013, the Year of the White House

Back in the past, movie distributors were more daring: they would release two movies that look and feel almost alike in the same year. Remember Deep Impact and Armageddon in 1998?

In 2013, history repeated itself, but it didn’t involve a comet hitting the earth, but an attack on the White House.

Back then, these two movies were released:  Olympus Has Fallen, a movie with a rather compelling plot and characters but less action, and White House Down, the super action-packed one with a President who speaks like Obama.

Unlike the movie that involves comets, whereby viewers were divided between #TeamDeepImpact and #TeamIDon’tWanttoMissaThing, the one about White House has a clear winner: Olympus Has Fallen got USD$170.2 million against a budget of USD$70 million, while White House Down had USD$205.4 million…against a budget of a whopping USD$150 million.

And so, Olympus Has Fallen went on to have a sequel, London Has Fallen, which takes places in London, while White House Down went on to Netflix (I kid you not, it’s really in Netflix).

Then London Has Fallen earned enough to warrant a sequel, and here’s why Angel Has Fallen comes into play.

But can it repeat its success?

Angel Has Fallen

The movie has its characters reprised for their roles. Morgan Freeman, who plays a Speaker of the House (then acting President) in the first movie, has now become the POTUS. Gerard Butler, who plays Secret Service agent (Secret Service is the team that protects the President) Mike Banning, is once again an agent who’s always at the right time at the right place to be involved in all the action.

This time, however, Banning isn’t a hero shooting the bad guys to save world leaders; instead, he’s been framed for the assassination of the POTUS, and therefore embarks on a quest to clear his name.

Pretty exciting, except that there’s just one problem: in all the previous movies, the winning formula is Banning shooting gunmen with highly unrealistic accuracy, and not him trying to find the truth.

Can this new formula work?

Here’s what Google says:

Oh, well.

As a fan of Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down (the mindless actions are a really good remedy for Monday Blues), I’d have to disagree with Google this time around.

Predictable Plot, Dark Action Scenes & Super Shaky Scenes

While I wasn’t expecting a movie with an M. Night Shyamalan plot, I was expecting a plot that’s going to be different from its predecessors: I mean, that guy with the deepest voice in the world is finally POTUS! There’s going to be some deep plot here, right?

But no.

Halfway through the movie, you’d know who the bad guys are and who the good guys are. They didn’t even need to show an evil smile to portray their evilness; you just know.

Maybe years of House of Cards or Designated Survivor has set the benchmark higher, but anyways.

I’m not there for the plot, remember? I just want to see Agent Banning jumping over Deep Voice Freeman, and taking bullets for him while saying, “I serve at the pleasure of the President.”

But once again…no.

The entire movie had Banning going all over the world (okay, only in Washington, D.C.) trying to find out who framed him, and action scenes were dark and shaky. The pace got faster in the later part of the movie, but in the first thirty minutes or so, it was just Banning wondering what the hell had just happened.

Fans of Olympus Has Fallen or White House Down, who want to watch Secret Service agents kick some ass while talking to their imaginary headset, might be disappointed since our hero is no longer an agent.

Is it a must-watch?

If you’ve not watched its predecessors, then this might be refreshing to you and worth a watch. If you’re like me who’s expecting Secret Service agents to continue protecting the POTUS, then skip this. You might want to re-watch White House Down in Netflix instead.

Rating: 2/5

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]