Both Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen are both guilty pleasures of mine. In truth, they’re the types of movies that I’ll probably always be willing to watch no matter what. Of course, because of this, I was also open to watching the third movie in this surprisingly successful series entitled Angel Has Fallen. I was guessing that even if it wasn’t great, I could at least get some solid action out of it.
After an assassination attempt on U.S. President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) finds himself falsely accused of the crime and taken into custody. After escaping from custody, he goes on the run with his own agency and the FBI hot on his trail. To uncover the truth, Banning does everything he can to clear his name, keep his family from harm and protect the country from what looks to be an inevitable war.
I doubt this will shock too many when I say this, but a lot of what’s going on in Angel Has Fallen simply isn’t possible and makes no sense whatsoever. However, it’s one of those movies where you don’t necessarily have an issue with this since it’s not being made with the hopes of being high scale or intelligent. While this might hurt a film made with those types of aspirations in mind, in cases like this, it’s easier to ignore much of what might not fit in a world filled with logic.
Angel Has Fallen is also predictable in most ways. For example, you already know who the bad guys are as soon as they pop up on-screen. And to push that point further, you’ll also be able to figure out what they’re trying to accomplish without too much effort even though they’re probably hoping to surprise you with the incoming reveals. Although I would have preferred that this part be less obvious, it gives its viewers a chance to just turn off their brains and maybe have a little mindless fun in the process.
I allowed myself to do that here because I knew what I was getting from the start. To put it bluntly, you’re probably like me and are watching the third installment of this Fallen series strictly for the action. If you’re heading into this anticipating anything more than this, you probably haven’t seen either of the first two. If by some chance you have seen those and expected something more this time around, I don’t know what to tell you.
The only thing that was somewhat unexpected was the performance of Nick Nolte. I didn’t realize he was even in the movie at first, but he made his presence felt and helped make what we’re watching better. While his character adds something a little different, I have to admit that who he plays is also kind of predictable as soon as he shows up. I won’t spoil anything for those of you who might not know about his character, but I will say that I’m glad he was included.
While Nolte was an added bonus, the only thing I truly wanted from Angel Has Fallen was a bunch of fighting and shooting. Because of the circumstances that our protagonist finds himself in, we don’t get as much of that as we did in the previous films. There’s still plenty of action, but some of the usual has been replaced with seemingly more explosions than I recall in either of the first two. I would have preferred more of the aggressive “in your face” style of combat, what we’re offered is mostly exceptional.
All I’ll say is that Angel Has Fallen is what I’m sure most people probably expect it to be. Depending on how you feel about this franchise, that could be a great thing to hear or a reason for you to skip it altogether. If you weren’t into it the first couple of times, a slight shift in the plot probably won’t be able to pull you into this one. That’s perfectly understandable since it’s not the kind of thing that everyone will love and/or stick around for.
Rating: R
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Screenplay:
Robert Mark Kamen
Matt Cook
Ric Roman Waugh
Cast:
Gerard Butler
Morgan Freeman
Jada Pinkett Smith
Lance Reddick
Tim Blake Nelson
Piper Perabo
Nick Nolte
Danny Huston
Film Length: 114 minutes
Release Date: August 23, 2019
Distributor: Lionsgate
