Olympus Has Fallen: Questionable Plot Saved by a Genuine Bad@$$!

Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn’s Finest) has taken a flimsy script based on a frightening premise and transformed it into an action powerhouse.  While there is much that could be improved in this film, it is extremely entertaining action event complete with its own memorable Bad@$$!

Premise: White House is taken over by terrorists. Result: Two parts awesome action, two parts flimsy plot, and three parts total Bad@$$ protagonist and you got yourself a delicious film with only a slightly bitter aftertaste.

The film begins by establishing relationships, most importantly that of Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) to President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his son Connor (Finley Jacobsen).  And it is during this sequence that a tragedy strikes crushing that relationship and sending Banning into obscurity: to watch the White House from afar as he sits in the Treasury Department. Even his pleas to Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs (Angela Bassett) go nowhere.

But then, everything changes: in one of the most terrifying, exhilarating, jingoism-inducing events in film history, The White House comes under disastrous attack.  It is wave after wave of clever, perfectly planned assault, as every defense of the most famous house in the world (or so Americans believe, at least) crumbles before audience eyes.

And the capture of the President, The Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Nathan Hoening (James Ingersoll), Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo) among several others marks a dangerous position for our country: each of these have one of three keys to Cerberus, the anti-missile defense system fail-safe.  Those responsible, Kang (Rick Yune) and the traitor Forbes (Dylan McDermott) – whose rationale for treason is as limp as a Viagra patient in withdrawal- are merciless and, naturally, it seems no one can stop them.  And so Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and General Clegg (Robert Forster), responsible for the response to this terrorism, become a mess of confusion and poor decision-making.

But amidst the rubble, there is Banning, conveniently not a part of the terrorist’s calculations but very much a sudden thorn in their sides.  During the chaos he manages to infiltrate the White House pre-lockdown and serve as the only hope America has.  While this seems remarkably cheesy on some level, Fuqua’s direction in combination with Banning’s sheer brilliance keeps all eyes on screen.

A mixture of impossible moves and exciting surprises are in store for observers literally from the moment Banning takes control, truly embodying John McClane, Bryan Mills, and King Leonidas throughout.  The action quality is exhilarating and paced in such a manner as to keep audiences transfixed.

Further, Fugua dazzlingly plays the “Patriotic Exhilaration” card, a form of induced hysteria brought on by images of assault upon one’s nation.  It will bring out the jingoism in even the most liberal of us, and it heightens even the most intense action display (see Red Dawn for another example).

Observers will certainly have some doubts on the effectiveness of this campaign in reality as well as the convenience of certain protocols being broken that just happen to feed the master plan.  There are more than a few moments that require almost acrobatic levels of suspension of disbelief; this certainly detracts from the film, but fortunately it is a thrill ride that settles neatly into guilty pleasure.

The acting throughout is good enough.  Butler is great as an action hero (we knew this from 300) and rightly reprises that persona, giving us scene after scene of action-star hero we have been longing for.  Eckhart is good as usual but his character is plagued by some script issues that require him to make some choices that make him look incompetent simply to advance the plot – sloppy but not his fault.

Yune is a fantastic villain, keeping cool and collected throughout, and more so when juxtaposed with McDermott, who is typically great, but somehow seems miscast.  Bassett, as always, nails her role as a cool and collected power center and Melissa Leo once again proves that she can be awesome without the need for audience facial recognition – she looks and acts differently in every movie and like an unexpected Happy Ending, elicits an embarrassed smile once the credits role and you realize it is she.

Freeman is flat for most of this film until one scene where he explodes and takes control and all is right again with the world.  Forster plays his role well also although it is still impossible to tell him apart from R. Lee Ermey.  Jacobsen, in the role of requite awesome child-actor, holds up his end of the bargain throughout.

In the end, this will never be an example of great filmmaking.  However, as an entertaining action movie, it is fantastic and tons of fun.  Enough is done by the director and the cast to make it work, and that, for certain films, should be enough.

Rating: 7- A refreshing Champagne that a cute bartender comp’d you!