It has been a long time since Hollywood has made a political- action thriller that was this patriotic. It seems that since 9/11, many of the films about or featuring politics have centered on characters exposing some dark secrets about the government. Director Antoine Fuqua bucks that trend in favor of the super-patriotic “Olympus Has Fallen”.
Unlike stories such as “Safe House” and Fuqua’s own “Shooter,” this film has more to do with late-90s thrillers such as “Air Force One”. The title of this film refers a secret service code signifying that the White House has been taken over.
In this case, a band of vengeful North Korean terrorists seize the White House, as well as President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and members of the presidential cabinet. The only hope America has now lies in the hands of ex-secret service agent Mike Banning, played by Gerard Butler.
Right from the start, it is apparent that the filmmakers took inspiration from the real world tensions with North Korea. However, the villains
do not work here for a number of reasons. This type of super-patriotic, us-versus-them story has not been made too often in recent years.
The film and most of its parts feel very much out-of-place amongst the recent political-action thrillers. The North Koreans are written in a very two-dimensional manner usually reserved for terrorist stereotypes such as Russians and Middle Easterners. The problem is that the villains are not overly threatening or terrifying in that light.
That may have something to do with the flimsy and clichéd motivation the terrorists have. It would have been more terrifying back in day when the Soviet Union was trying to take over the world.
Besides the motives, the real reason why the terrorists are so bland has everything to do with the weak screenwriting. Fuqua — who is typically a competent director — was working from a script written by two first-timers, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. Everything about the screenplay screams mundane.
Rothenberger and Benedikt play it ultra-safe with clichéd plot elements and cheesy dialogue. These subpar elements waste the talents of the cast members playing the good guys. The charismatic Aaron Eckhart is not really given much to do or say throughout the film as the president. Even Oscar winners Melissa Leo and Morgan Freeman are given next to nothing to work with.
However, the script is not the only subpar element in the film. With next tonoplot,thisisthekindoffilmthat needed to have top-notch action and visuals. The action is nothing overly impressive either. There is nothing in “Olympus Has Fallen” that has not been done in much better ways in past films of this nature.
On top of that, the entire production value almost makes the film look like a direct-to-DVD project. The budget, according to Box Office Mojo, was a mere $70 million and it shows at times with the CGI and visual effects. The takeover of Washington D.C. is a scene that could have been interesting from a visual standpoint. Instead, it is clear that they used a very cheap CG model of the nation’s capital. Even for a film this cheesy and unbelievable, the audience still needs to believe (to some degree) that it is the real D.C. It is almost as if either Fuqua or Film District (or maybe both) were banking on the stars to sell the story.
On that token, the only potential saving grace with “Olympus Has Fallen” is that Butler makes a fairly convincing action hero. Although the material is very weak, Butler manages a few solid one-liners throughout the film. There is a point in the story where it becomes “Die Hard” meets “Air Force One” in the White House. And Butler almost makes that work by himself.
However, his career-redeeming performance is not enough to overcome the films’ shortcomings. With such a tight budget, it was probably was not a smart idea to bank an entire project around a cast. At least a little bit of money has to be put into the effects and writers.
It really is hard to recommend such a bland film, but this will probably appeal to hard-core fans of action films. Production value aside, this is really no different than some mindless B-grade action film on Red Box. A majority of the general film- going audience can skip this one and not miss a beat.
