Review - Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Gerard Butler tries to resurrect his dead movie career with this action movie - Olympus Has Fallen. It features a star-studded cast with Harvey Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart) playing the president of the United States. The White House gets sieged by some angry Koreans and now ex-guard Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) finds himself in a position where he must save everyone.

The opening scene of Olympus Has Fallen shows us the good relationship between President Ashe and his guard Mike Banning. However after a car crash kills Ashe's wife (Ashley Judd) shortly afterwards, the film fast forwards some months and Banning is now demoted to the Treasury department. It's evident that Ashe slightly blames Banning for the death of his wife and even at the end of the film, I felt like the president was still pissed at Banning because there was not much gratitude, even after saving his life. There was no feel good moment at the end of this movie and I found that kinda odd because it made the opening scene now irrelevant to the rest of the movie.

Olympus Has Fallen delivers where action is concerned. I know most action fans will be as pleased as I was. Action sequences from the get-go will keep you entertained and Gerard Butler does a solid job in being our hero. I was a bit surprised at the loads of explosions in this movie; the plane attack set-piece was mind blowing and wild. The CGI quality isn't the greatest but at least it didn't look outrageously fake or ridiculous. The gun-fights are riveting. However it came as no surprise to see one man take down a whole clique by himself. The acting was overall okay and as I said, Gerard Butler was a bad-ass. Aaron Eckhart's role as president isn't that memorable and I felt there wasn't much chemistry between him and the other characters. The rest of the presidential posse were fine in their respective roles (such as Morgan Freeman and Angela Bassett) but I wasn't too fond of Melissa Leo making a fool of herself in this movie. Her shrieking and over-acting was too much and after awhile I just wanted the bad guys to kill her to how annoyed I was. I really liked Rick Yune's portrayal of the villain. He was pretty serious and convincing about his intentions.

One of the biggest downfall of Olympus Has Fallen was its script. It was poor and I even found myself laughing at some of the characters ridiculous lines. As a result, the film feels implausible. As much as the gun fights were riveting and Rick Yune was terrifying, the film really isn't that believable - and I blame the writers for this. Story-wise, it offers nothing new. It is the same old story we've seen a million times before where one man must save the day against some villainous plot. Luckily the action sequences are there to somewhat distract us from everything that is wrong in this movie and you'll never really find yourself bored while watching.

Does Olympus Has Fallen save Gerard Butler's career? Well not really but it is action-packed and not a bad way to pass two hours.

Rating: 6.5/10



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