Movie Review: London Has Fallen (2016)

Look, you don’t need me to tell you that the follow-up to 2013’s surprise hit, Olympus Has Fallen, isn’t the greatest example of filmmaking ever shown on the big screen. But, if you enjoyed the original that had Gerard Butler as Secret Service agent Mike Banning racing through the White House, dispatching North Korean commandos who stormed the building and who also captured the President of the United States, Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhardt), then you’re going to love the sequel.

Outrageously improbable, incredibly violent and a whole lot of fun. That’s how I’d describe London Has Fallen if asked to sum it all up in ten words. You know what you’re going to get when you walk into films like this, and whilst London Has Fallen and other similar examples of popcorn action flicks are never going to be critical darlings, they certainly give you – and you’ll pardon the pun – plenty of bang for your buck.

Scotsman Butler is back as Banning, a guy who reminds you a lot of Die Hard hero John McClane – as in, he finds himself right in the middle of some bad and violent situations where the odds are stacked way against him far more often than you or I get pay rises, and he responds not just by killing truckloads of bad guys, but by unleashing so-bad-they’re-good one-liners and enjoys antagonising the head bad guys, usually by radio and sometimes face to face. The major between Die Hard’s McClane and Mike Banning here is that Butler’s character is far more violent. He loves knives, and he hates terrorists. Not a good combination. Especially if you’re a terrorist.

Trapped in a deserted London after a series of well-planned terror attacks take down just about every landmark in that city that you can think of (and a few more after that), Banning, who is contemplating retirement with a baby on the way, is once more President Asher’s only help when a terrorist mastermind, who is a little upset with POTUS for a drone strike that killed his daughter at her wedding, is hell bent on capturing Asher and decapitating him live on YouTube.

But that’s not going to happen with Mike Banning on the case, right? RIGHT! The scenes where London is levelled are spectacular, as are the car chases and helicopter crashes, but it’s when the bad guys shut down the lights in the English capital, leading Banning and Asher to sneak their way around, first to an MI6 safe house and then to the American embassy that the film really gets tense.

Butler plays Banning about as woodenly as the desk I’m sitting at, grunting out some one-liners between stabbing bad guys a dozen times per terrorist (“I thought you were never going to come out of the closest,” Banning says to POTUS after Asher emerges from a cupboard to shoot a bad guy in the head) and doing his best to make sure the president doesn’t get shot to pieces by what appears to be a horde of bad guys. They’ve infiltrated everywhere, from the London police to the Buckingham Palace guards, managing to off a bunch of world leaders in dramatic fashion at the outset. London Has Fallen certainly isn’t short on explosions.

Despite the fact that you know exactly how it’s going to end – with Mike Banning saving the day, of course!! – the film ratchets up the tension like it ratchets up the number of bad guys tumbling all around the place. 

As Banning and Asher try to make good their escape, Vice President Trumbull (played very presidentially by Morgan Freeman) and his Washington D.C.-based advisors try to assist Scotland Yard in uncovering the traitor who’s allowed the bad guys to bury themselves so deeply into so many places in the city.

Like I said, outrageously improbable. But fun. Suspend disbelief, Strap in and enjoy the ride!