Angel Has Fallen- series review by Sean Chandler

Full-text transcript of the film review:

[00:00:00] The third film in the has fallen trilogy has fallen into theaters or will fall into theaters depending on when you’re watching this. So let’s talk about. When Mike Bannan is framed for attempting to assassinate the president, he finds himself on the run from authorities and the real threat as a fan of throwback rated R action films as well as Gerard Butler action thrillers. I was pretty excited for this one. Before I tell you what I thought about it, go and tell me what you thought about it down below in the comments section. Did you love it? Hate it. Are you somewhere in between or are you someone that just doesn’t particularly like this franchise? Let me know down below. With that said, let’s get started talking about the good as this is an action movie. Let’s start things off talking about the action with this movie. Inside of this trilogy is probably the biggest film in the sense that it covers the most time, goes to the most places and has kind of the biggest conspiracy inside of it. And because of that, there’s a good bit of variety inside of what the action is. If you look at Olympus has fallen, it’s a lot of Gerard Butler walking around the White House with a gun and a knife is killing people. This movie has chases, it has explosions, it has drones. It does a bunch of different things, all leading up to a big slam bang finale that very much is in the vein of Olympus has Fallen.

[00:01:13] And then we got to talk about our star, Gerard Butler. These days, we don’t have a lot of true action stars anymore because we don’t have a lot of true action movies anymore. Gerard Butler is one of the few that consistently puts out action thrillers. And of course, here he is in fine form. It’s always just fun to see him drop his one liners as he takes out bad guys, whether he’s sneaking around where he’s just going all out with a machine gun. I just love to see that kind of thing. And I think he’s very good at doing that sort of thing. But his character inside of this movie, it goes much deeper into him. Mike Bannon, the person than it did in the previous two films. We look at his family, his family’s history, his relationship to some of the people around him. We dive into kind of his career, his aspirations, what makes him tick a little bit? What does he actually want in life and what is best for him? He’s presented more as someone that has character flaws as well as all of these adventures are taking a toll on him. And we didn’t really see that in the previous films. This one is very much about the character of Mike and where he’s going and what has happened to him. And I thought that was a nice addition. Another standout, here’s Nick Nolte dropped into the film is Mike Banning’s father, this kind of crazy outdoor woodsman.

[00:02:21] And the character is a good bit more depth to him than some of the other kind of crazy people like this that sometimes are placed in films like this, as he’s used to kind of help us understand where Mike’s coming from, as well as give that relationship family arc for the character. Beyond that, of course, he’s he’s just fantastic as an actor. So he has emotional moments, but he’s also really funny at times, the way his characters use some of the things that he says, the way the butler responds back to him, there’s a great dynamic inside of it. And he plays out throughout the entire second half of the film and is used in many different ways. It also is a good bit of humor sprinkled throughout the film, especially the second half. Not that it’s like a Marvel movie with everybody quipping or anything like that, but just kind of the way the characters interact with certain scenarios, their reactions to the absurdity, some of the lines, especially as I mentioned before, with the Nick Nolte character, you get some good kind of humor, breaking the tension inside of the action sequences that I thought fit nicely inside of the film. And finally, as a fan of the action genre, this movie passes the red box test for me from time to time. I’ll just go to Red Box and I’ll rent some random direct video action movie.

[00:03:27] Some of them are dreadful, barely watchable. Other ones I think are actually pretty good. The red box. That simply means that if I rented this from Redbox, not knowing what it was, I would be satisfied and happy that it delivered the action, the thrills that I wanted. With that said, let’s move on to the mixed aspects of the film. And the big one here is that they change up the formula for the franchise. So the first two films had kind of the same plot. Mike Banning must rescue and save the president and keep him alive. And that led to kind of a certain pacing of the films, a certain urgency, momentum moving forward. You’re at the edge of your seat. Will he keep him alive till the credits roll? This movie changes up the whole formula. That’s not what this movie is about. That’s not what this movie is like. And so in certain ways, it doesn’t feel like a rehash of the previous two movies. Some people felt that London has fallen was just too similar. They were just rehashing it, but making it bigger. This one, does it feel like that? On the flip side, it can feel very different from the other two films because that same characters, different scenarios, it doesn’t quite have that urgency in the momentum of being on the run with the president or rushing to save the president. And so you lose a little bit.

[00:04:37] You gain a little bit. That’s why I kind of put this one in the mix. It has some positives and negatives to the fact that they switched up the formula. The other thing to know about this film, kind of the mix category is this is more of a thriller than an action film compared to the previous two films. The previous two films were very much from beginning to end. Mike Bannon is shooting people and I think people and punching people in the face. This one has a lot more of him trying to escape himself. So it’s more a thriller based than all out action movie. It has the slam bang finale. It definitely has some shootouts in the middle of the film in a lot of. Explosions in the film, but it’s not as much of from beginning to end, Mike, with a machine gun and a knife. That’s not what this movie is as much as you need to go into the film with proper expectations. With that said, let’s move into the negative. The big problem here is that the story is so familiar and predictable. If you want to know exactly what Angel has fallen is, you take the fugitive plus shooter plus twenty four plus Gerard Butler and that equals Angel has fallen. Now full transparency on paper. That sounds fantastic to me. I love all of those things, combining them together into one package that’s right up my alley. But everything in this film feels like a B grade version of something better.

[00:05:56] Also, it’s painfully predictable and I wouldn’t bother me too much, except the movie plays the twists and the reveals as if they’re actually surprising. And the two big twist reveals in this film could not be more obvious. I mean, as soon as two of the characters in this movie were introduced by their introductory scene and OK, I know exactly where this movie is going. I know exactly what’s happening here. And I was right. And I’m actually not very good at predicting the plots of movies. This one was just so predictable. The movie’s also totally, wildly inconsistent. One scene will be dead serious. The next will be kind of quippy action movie. And then we have family drama. And then inside the epilogue, there’s a scene that’s almost all out, cornball humor inside of it. And they’re all side by side and they don’t fit together quite right. There’s a number of scenes inside this film that are way too serious for how silly the premise of this film actually is. The audience I saw it with was laughing a whole lot. They’re kind of in a weird mood and sometimes they’re laughing because there were jokes happening, but other times it felt like they were laughing because the movie was playing some ridiculous scenarios with a totally straight face and melodramatic music playing on top of it. And finally, this is a movie only designed for its target audience.

[00:07:17] If you’re someone that loves action thrillers, you’ll probably get what you want out of this movie. If you’re someone that is kind of just burned out on Gerard Butler action thrillers, you’re tired of the tropes. You want something new. That’s not what this is. Real quick, before I give you my final take on the film, tell me what you thought down below in the comments section. Did you love it or are you just burned out on this franchise? Let me know. Also, I will be ranking all three of the has fallen films this Saturday. But after this video, if you want more, Sean Taylor talks about action movies. Check out this video right up here where I ranked the Die Hard films as a fan of action movies. This provided just enough action, thrills and escapism to keep me satisfied. But if you’re pickier with your action thrillers, just rent the fugitive or shooter and stay home. It’s a B minus. Overall, it’s a six point five out of town on the entertainment scale. And if you’re interested, you could probably just rent this one from Redbox. And if you do, you’ll probably have a good time with it. Remember to come back Saturday for my ranking of all of the has fallen films or check out that video right there right now to see my take on all the Die Hard films. Thank you so much for watching it. Keep talking movies too much.