Throwback Review: Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

In anticipation of the release of Angel Has Fallen, check out this throwback review of the original film of the series, Olympus Has Fallen (original review).

Olympus Has Fallen follows a Secret Service agent named Mike Banning (Butler) who, after an unfortunate accident, is no longer part of President Benjamin Asher’s (Eckhart) detail. Banning’s attention would take a fortunate (or unfortunate) turn for the worst once a group of heavily armed and highly trained terrorists launched an attack on the White House and assumed control. Now it was up to Banning to perform the nearly impossible task of locating Asher’s son Connor (Finely Jacobsen) while having to rescue the president before the terrorists unleash their obviously sinister master plan.

Based on the tile of Olympus Has Fallen (and the series as a whole), it is safe to expect plenty of utter chaos and destruction in the most mindless of ways. While all this mindlessness may not work for some (but judging by the fact that it spawned two sequels suggests that it was), it all still managed to be somewhat satisfying. It was definitely exciting to watch Butler in his element in one of his most well-known action roles before becoming the action star we all know as Banning, playing the lone wolf the majority of the film against the film’s nondescript bad guys (because we all know that the actual story does not matter whatsoever).

Not only Butler was on his game as the rest of Olympus Has Fallen‘s cast chipped in despite the fact that the film didn’t require all that much from them (since this was never supposed to be that deep of a film to begin with), including Eckhart (whose great chemistry with Butler helped lift this film and London Has Fallen) as Asher, Freeman as Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (who we already know becomes president in Angel Has Fallen), and Angela Bassett as Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs.

In the end, Olympus Has Fallen is one of those stupid fun action films to watch to decompress. Why this film ever spawned two sequels is a little baffling since this film kind of did the most with the Has Fallen series’ overarching premise yet things keep on falling anyway.

*still courtesy of FilmDistrict*

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.