His quick decisions saves the President for as long as he can, until he in inevitably captured and planned to be publicly executed for fear propaganda. Banning, whose steps ahead of every nations top security outlets, goes above and beyond his duties, not informing a single soul of the President’s movements and plans.
Gathering some of the biggest leaders in the world, Barkawi’s plans being to unfold, trapping leaders, bombing landmarks and killing off thousands of people, including innocent civilians, in an attempt to capturing the leader of the free world, and globally broadcasting his execution. Upon the news of the sudden death of the British Prime Minister, President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) along with his top personal Secret Service Agent Banning, make their way to the UK for a highly publicized funeral for the former Prime Minister. Barely escaping the bombing of the United States, Aamir and his son Kamran Barkawi (Waleed Zuaiter) spend two long, hard year, devising a plan that will get their revenge and debt in blood.
Of course, to amp up the melodrama and emotions, despite all of the intelligence of the United States government, the day of the strike is the same day as Aamir’s youngest daughter’s wedding. When his dealings get him directly entangled with the interests of the United States, the United States military orders a drone strike attack on Aamir and his family.
But who is to say revenge films are bad? Anyone remember Kill Bill or Mad Max: Fury Road? The baddie this time, Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul) is a arms-dealing terrorist, arming any nation or any one body, with deep enough pockets, with weapons that could take out some of the world largest and longest standing national landmarks. As mentioned above, Olympus was a much more plot-heavy and politically savvy action film, while London is nothing short of a revenge film.
Filled with ridiculous one-liners, sometimes really animated and disgraceful action special effects and some serious contemplative moments of justification and reveal, London Has Fallen is the perfect post-Oscar action movie to cozy up to for the month of March. Rugged with grit and braun, London Has Fallen is easily a fun and mindless action movie for die-hard action movie fans, as well as passive fanfare for casual action fans to the genre as well. Yet, London Has Fallen is a more aggressive, solid action film that Olympus on many levels, and perhaps thats because of the cast and crew’s fun with the material, rather than a serious tone found in the first film. Usually, when studios give a smaller budget to sequels, their faith in the subject matter is not very convincing. London Has Fallen is a less thought-out actioner, yet, the film tries to out-do its predecessor’s actions, with a smaller budget, which never boasts well for action movies. While London Has Fallen does not have as much of a very intellectual plot as its original, one thing is for sure, the action, language and kick-ass Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) are amped up to mirror signature John McClane moments, but never ever quite passes them.
In 2013, London’s predecessor Olympus Has Fallen showed a very political situation of a North Korean terrorist trying to unify Korea by capturing the American President, and using it as leverage to remove American opposition in North Korea for a South Korean invasion. Now, after 2013’s obsession with White House abduction movies, White House Down and the original Olympus Has Fallen, which spawned our currently reviewed London Has Fallen, its hard not to be political when the main players in the film are today’s world leaders. Bad guys, no matter how hard you try to justify them, are always the main concern and heavily scrutinized subject of many critics and talks within action movies.
Bad guys, no matter how hard you try to justify them, are always the main Action movies, regardless of their explicit intent or savage coincidences, always tend to be a blend of entertainment, and implicitly, a political mine-field waiting to be criticized for its portrayal of the bad guys. Action movies, regardless of their explicit intent or savage coincidences, always tend to be a blend of entertainment, and implicitly, a political mine-field waiting to be criticized for its portrayal of the bad guys.