Well I was afforded the opportunity to see
Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Director Antoine Fuqua has done some pretty good flicks and i'll grant that this one was well structured in terms of the direction but boy did the script and other such elements just about sunk this movie. The only reason this movie gets a bit of a pass for me is that I recognized it for what it was: a "shut off your brain and just enjoy the kablooey" flick.
First of all, as a political junkie the whole setup to getting the White House breached and taken over was pure fantasy and not to mention an insane suicide mission for the plotters and the country behind said plot. In a more realistic world
. There are other issues as well but I won't get into them because i'd be sitting here all day typing them out.
That being said, as I said before the movie IS well crafted from a technical standpoint (well some of the SFX looked really cheap especially this one panorama shot of the capital where it looked like a desktop miniature) and the acting was generally quite good. In a "Die Hard" type movie it falls on the chemistry between the hero and the main villain and the way the Villain treats his captors. I have to say Gerrard Butler was pretty damn good in his role as he pulled off the tough guy act very convincingly and knowing the backstory to his character at the beginning of the movie added to the urgency and sense of redemption he was seeking. Rick Yune who played the main villain Kang was VERY good. He had the cold, heartless bastard kind of personality and was very ruthless. I liked that Fuqua chose to use NK rather than middle eastern bad guys in this flick as it gives it a bit of a different dimension rather than the tired old "DOWN WITH THE INFIDELS!" schtick of movie Arabs.
The rest of the supporting cast was fairly good and Finlay Jacobsen who played the president's son was NOT annoying at all. I actually liked that he was very interested in the work of the secret service and looked up to Butler's character. Morgan Freeman was a bit of a cipher in the movie though which is a disappointment. Any ol' guy could've played his role and made it work but it was nice to see him nonetheless. Oh BTW, for the comic book fans? Angela Bassett HAS to play Amanda Waller if they ever put her to film. I know that DC intentionally revamped Waller's look to fit Bassett but seeing her as the head of the secret service in this movie I think she can pull off the Amanda Waller character.
Anywho, I hope that Fuqua's next movie (a movie version of the excellent '80s TV show The Equalizer) will be better served from a common sense/scripting purpose as that was the biggest hurdle OHF had and clearly didn't get over. I also have to say the plot as it was, was fairly weak once the setup got dealt with. As much as Roland Emmerich gets some hate at least his movies TRY to craft an elaborate and dense story so i'm interested in seeing White House Down in comparison to this movie. I have a feeling the latter may be better.
OHF barely gets 2 stars for me and that's only because I realized what this was: "Die Hard in the White House" so I just turned off my brain as hard as that was for me and just went for the ride.