OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN MOVIE REVIEW

 

Olympus Has Fallen stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. When i first saw this films trailer i instantly thought "Die Hard 5 starring Gerard Butler" instead of Bruce Willis and i just want to say now, this film is a hell of a lot better than Die Hard 5.

 

Butler character is Mike Banning, a former Secret Serviceman who following a tragedy involving a fatal car crash at the beginning of the film {no spoilers} leaves the front line kind of work and gets a desk job in the U.S government, however suffering from flashbacks from that fateful night. However, when the whitehouse is attacked by Korean terrorists and the president is taken hostage following a meeting with South Korea's prime minister, it's left up to Branning to save the president and find his son, as well as eliminating the threat lead by chief commander in charge Kang Yeonsak. There are a few mild twists and turns in the story which are pretty easy to spot i must admit. This is though a very solid action film with A LOT of deaths, the koreans don't mess around here!

 

Morgan Freeman plays Alan Trumball, the speaker in the white house who is temporarily placed as acting president when the original leader is kidnapped and held hostage. Kang plays a very good part as the films villian and he and his men take the president and his cabinet hostage in order to obtain the codes needed for the nuclear missiles programme that will initiate a catastrophic series of bombings that will destroy the U.S.

 

The special effects in this films are, in my opinion, very mixed. Sometimes they would look very impressive and visually stunning, but in other scenes {most notably the plane scenes and fighter jet scenes} it looks extremely fake and although we know its not going to be too realistic it can take you out of the film for a while. Gerrard Butler steals the show though and in this role goes back to doing what he is good at, being the tough guy action hero {not doing rom-com's with Jennifer Aniston}, although he does need to work harder on that american accent, i know he's scottish but you can tell how bad in some scenes his accent, or lack there of, is. Is the film corny in places? Of course it is, the film knows what it's trying to achieve and does it well for the most part, it's aim was to be a good action film that isn't exactly going to be nominated for an oscar anytime soon, but it has done what Die Hard 5 should have done, been  a fun short {2 hours} popcorn style film that delivered in not just the violence, but the tension and acting. The music score created some genuinely tense moments that were needed to set the scenes in various places.

 

Is it realistic? No, but it's not trying to be. Like i said, it's trying to be better than Die Hard 5 and in my opinion, is way better and if you like mindless action with a simple enough plot to follow then i say check Olympus Has Fallen out!

 

My Rating - 8/10

 

Positives - Action packed, Gerrard Butler was good, as was Morgan Freeman & Aaron Eckhart, Good special effects in most scenes, never got boring.

 

Negatives - Too much dodgy looking CGI in places, Kang's lips sometimes don't match what hes saying so looks audio dubbed in, Butlers american accent!

 

Thanks alot for reading my review guys i appreciate every view i can get, if you havent checked any of my other reviews out there on this page in the sidebar. If you have seen this film what did you think of it? Should Gerrard Butler stick to action films or do you like his other work? Did you think this was better than Die Hard 5? Comment below let me know whatever you want!

 

Take care :}