London Has Fallen (2016) (Movie Review)

Dir: Babak Najafi
Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart
Dur: 1 hr 30 mins
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/5
PG: Plenty of foul language and violence.

If you’ve seen the prequel Olympus Has Fallen, than you know pretty much what to expect from this film. The storyline isn’t new. If anything, it may be a little too cliché. We know the drill by now: A serious crisis with possible global side-effects; one man who is willing to risk it all for the sake of his country, group or firm or in this case, friend; a seemingly daunting task and a glorious though bloody and muddy triumph.

America is back to fighting against its favourite enemies – the Jihadi Terrorists. Enemies of the Stars and Stripes usually end up getting pulverized even though they are shown to have the upper hand. The scenario here is no different. To fulfil this mindless narrative, the villains are considerably mellowed down vis-à-vis, the villain of the prequel and the location is shifted to create psychological security and confidence that no matter where on earth there is a threat, America will rise to save the day.

You can’t help but feel that this is all a bit too xenophobic. The Americans are the heroes in a foreign land. The British are shown as bungling, protocol following idiots. They do the groundwork while the American hero runs away with the prize.



The action is all there but it’s sadly lacking in punch. It fails to inspire a similar drama, suspense or finish as the prequel and in a number of other ways it falls short of its predecessor. Nevertheless it is an interesting film and lovers of action won’t mind the quality of the story as long as there are things blowing up and blood squirting out. The foul language is a buzzkill but it seems pretty understandable under the circumstances. The acting isn’t out of the top drawer and neither is the cinematography but nevertheless the film is alright.    

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