Olympus Has Fallen is the first motion picture I watched in the post Oscar 2013 season. Certainly not a powerful beginning to post academy awards season but a conventional and entertaining action flick nevertheless. The
movie works on the premise of a much explored concept of Americans protecting
their homeland in movies such as Amerika, Red Dawn, and multiple Second World
War based films like Pearl Harbor. Also most gamers would remember the invasion
of the United States of America in the game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which
depicted some widespread destruction of the homeland. But where this movie
achieves a certain level of distinction is in its depiction of the obliteration
of Olympus (i.e the Secret Service code for the White House). Effort has certainly gone into engineering the sequences of destruction in the first part of the movie. Appreciable CGI in the destruction of the Washington Monument. But again nothing we haven't already seen before.
Olympus Has Fallen in its element is purely an action film.
Viewers who are looking for compelling plots, relatable character and an
acceptable level of realism may look past this billboard without fear of losing
out on anything. This characterization of an action film is very apparent in
some very key features like the existence of a disgraced/disgruntled hero Mike
Banning played by Gerard Butler, the pillar of strength Allan Trumball played
by Morgan Freeman and a fairly unconventional American president Benjamin Asher
played by Aaron Eckhart and also a character who betrays (whose identity I am
going to keep secret in fear of this review becoming a spoiler). Also, one will
notice the presence of humour in scenes of tension that is becoming a regular
in most action movies these days. To add to this is the separation of the hero
Butler and his wife Leah banning played by Radha Mitchell in what seemed to be
a normal day that takes a turn for the worst and their subsequent reunion after
the ordeal.
One aspect I thought worth mentioning about the movie is
that it was shot with a planned brutality and general disregard for human life.
The East Asian group attack the Olympus without any aura of humanity but with a
pure thirst for blood. In this manner the antagonists played good parts.
Unperturbed actions of inhuman bloodshed stemming from immense planning for the
op was apparent in the invaders. There was a regular volatile mix of
International incident, nuclear warheads and revenge that drove their actions.
Rick Yune who plays the head of the entire invading operation plays a sadistic
inhuman leader with a single minded thirst for revenge as well as he has
portrayed numerous roles previously.
There was no dearth of eye watering battle scenes. It
certainly isn’t conventional warfare but satisfied all you needed for the
spraying of a good deal of bullets. American action and war films have had a
majorly unchanging trend in the fact that first the antagonists were Russians
following the Cold War and then it was Middle Easterns following the 9/11
incident and now it is East Asians. Antoine Fuqua has followed a tried and
tested outlook to action films with a resolute and unrelenting character and a
One-Man-Army approach to setting USA all right in under 12 hours. Regular
action movie watchers will find nothing exceptional with an almost predictable
narrative. It is still an entertaining one time watch for most movie goers. It is now in theatres
PS – As for attention detail I will leave that to Americans
to decide. But honestly, which president walks out of the Oval Office without
buttoning his suit?
