Borrowing ideas and being unoriginal is a rampant cancer in western cinema nowdays but once in awhile it works in a film’s favour. Take pro-America love in Olympus Has Fallen. In a hideously noticeable tribute to the original Die Hard, it turns out to be a drawing popcorn action flick through a top high concept and acceptable Americana.
Slightly disgraced former head of the United States secret service Mike Banning (Gerard Butler, Movie 43) dreams of getting back to his former role after a falling out with U.S. President Ben Asher (Aaron Eckhart, The Rum Diary). Still keeping ties to his old job, Banning is in contact with his old friends regularly and his new job overlooks the White House. Rising tensions between North and South Korea eventually lead to a spectacular kamikaze raid on the home of the President whilst he’s in a meeting. With all of his secret service wiped out, the President is held and tortured for launch codes by a undetermined Korean terrorist. Banning snuck in on the quiet though and is put to the test to save Asher, the President’s son and the whole of the United States of America!
Butler is clearly aiming for John McClane territory here as Banning with his foul mouthed quips and one liners. He has a bit of a brain too so he’s more than enough to get behind as the only man badass enough to save the President. A couple of killer lines and possibly a more memorable name would have propelled Banning into cult hero territory where here he’s left as a mildy forgettable lead.
I’ve always been a bit surprised that Eckhart hasn’t done anything terribly major since his fantastic job as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. Again here he does a really good job in the worst day of any US president’s history. He’s aging and winding down but you can tell Eckhart picks up on that with his delivery of a man whose gone through seeing his wife’s dramatic death before his eyes and up for re-election.
There are a couple of familiar faces too. Morgan Freeman (Oblivion) gets to add stand-in President of the USA to his ever growing resume of characters in a typical Morgan Freeman role. American Horror Story’s Dylan McDermott plays a dirty, aging turncoat bodyguard in a nice little role. Rick Yune (The Man With The Iron Fists) is the main villain in a simple and backgroundless role. Seriously his character is “He’s Korean. Doesn’t matter which one, Boo him!”
It’s hard to talk about Olympus Has Fallen and say anything but it’s a Die Hard clone. We have a man out of place in an extraordinary situation, said man having a personal connection to those held for ransom in said situation (Banning got on well with Mr. President and the First Boy before the First Lady died) and we have a extended scene where the hero stops the bad guys from taking out a defenceless police/army squad. Heck we even get the same sliding down the side of the building to avoid a helicopter escape. A thought occurs that if you are going to pay homage or tribute you may as well do it from the very best. Originality isn’t this film’s strong suit but then, would I care less if this film WAS brought out as the fifth Die Hard?
Probably not since Olympus Has Fallen is still pretty entertaining for an action movie. Okay so you got a few moments of ropey CGI and setwork, looking a bit too fake for it’s own good, but then I’d hate to imagine the producers would fancy stumping up the price of insurance on filming at the actual White House (execution by Bruce Springsteen). We have our invincible U.S.A. luvin’ superman in Mike Banning and he doesn’t stop for no man, American or foreign. Running wild and despatching those who go against America, it’s a bit disappointing to not have Banning have a challenge to go against evenly. The closest we get is in the final fight with Yune’s character where he’s allowed to get in some knife slashes, that’s it.
Olympus Has Fallen is wonderfully jingoistic but what did you expect with a film about Koreans invading the White House. It’s left rather unclear at times where the terrorists are from. They sneak in as part of a South Korean representative entourage and pose as tourists outside. We then get some garbled speak about how the terrorist leader was from North Korea as a kid but whose is he fighting for now? They don’t flat out say if they’re representing one country or the other or if they’re part of a independent group. There’s hardly any characterisation on the terrorists either apart from “Look, they’re Asian. Boo them!”
Surprisingly, unlike Lincoln and Argo, with it’s sickening pro-America bias, I didn’t mind Olympus Has Fallen so much, mainly because I expected it. This is how I want America to be represented on the big screen, triumph through struggle and action scenes & muscle men. Seeing a marvellous landmark like the White House get taken over, instead of blown up as per cinema tradition, is something not seen before and is designed to slap audiences with the vision of real-life terrorism. It works so well and there’s a chilling line worth solid gold in “It takes 15 minutes for your army to get here – we took over your White House in 13” to reinforce America can fail, but then the Denning machine whizzes through to save the day which is fine. What it shows America as is imperfect which it has to do now and again to get right in movies for audiences of other countries to stop jumping on it’s back.
Olympus Has Fallen isn’t perfect by any means. It runs out of steam massively right before the end with it crawling over the finish line to a standard conclusion and the Die Hard comparisons don’t help. The CGI and set work looks naff at times and the jingoism is horrible but screw it, it’s all top fun. Not taking itself too seriously, it’s a Butler action vehicle with the right added bells and whistles with one of America’s symbols being gloriously trashed for our entertainment.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
