London Has Fallen delivers forceful counterpunch to terrorism
In what may be a sign of the times, the new action-thriller London Has Fallen doesn’t hide its praise for aggressive American foreign policy. But behind the politically incorrect militarism and machismo lies the story of a man willing to put his life on the line for friend and country.
Terrorist Aamir Barkawi (Alon Abutbul) survives a U.S. missile strike that kills many of his friends and family members at his palatial compound. Two years later, with inside help, Barkawi engineers a plot targeting 40 world leaders gathered in London for a state funeral. American President Benjamin Asher escapes harm thanks to the cunning and marksmanship of his Secret Service bodyguard, Mike Banning. Close friends, Asher and Banning (Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler, reviving their Olympus Has Fallen roles), regularly jog together and chat about the imminent birth of Banning’s first child.
Barkawi’s men destroy evacuation routes and with Stinger missiles ward off an attempted helicopter rescue of the president. On foot, in an eerily deserted downtown London, Asher and Banning try to elude teams of heavily armed terrorists tasked with Asher’s capture. Barkawi plans to assassinate the president while broadcasting live on the internet.
London Has Fallen doesn’t aim to play nice. When shooting bad guys is not enough, Banning exacts a knife for a knife. While Barkawi listens on the phone, Banning repeatedly plunges a blade into Barkawi’s accomplice son. Such strong violence and copious expletives give the film its R rating.
Banning follows in the well-worn path of Bruce Willis’s Die Hard and Mel Gibson’s Lethal Weapon characters, although Butler isn’t the very witty Gibson’s comedic equal. Still, Banning squeezes off as many one-liners as clips of ammunition. A British military leader warns him a hundred terrorists are holding Asher in a building Banning sets to storm alone.
“Yeah, well, they should’ve brought more men,” the fiercely loyal Banning retorts.
Although the killing reaches brutal levels, neither Banning nor the film’s writers make an apology for the violence. Just before the credits roll, Vice President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) speaks on television, perhaps in more than name only channeling a certain presidential candidate. Locking eyes with viewers, Trumbull promises America will remain engaged in Middle East affairs.
“This wouldn’t have happened if we had minded our own business?” Trumbull scoffs, mimicking critics. “Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
But London Has Fallen doesn’t do the little things well. In several scenes, the film flashes on screen the names and titles of military intelligence bigwigs gathered around meeting room tables, but few of them ever do or say anything. A seriously underutilized Freeman and nearly silent veteran actors Robert Forster and Melissa Leo appear unconcerned with both the president’s and the film’s wellbeing. Intrigue surrounding Barkawi’s mole never materializes beyond a few mentions and an abrupt resolution. And Banning’s improbable feats of heroism hijack the tender president-bodyguard brotherhood angle.
Although the film’s storyline doesn’t go the distance, its special effects do. The cables of Tower Bridge snap in horrifyingly slow motion. Then the bridge’s roadway buckles and ripples, plunging the unfortunate Japanese prime minister (and viewers trapped with him in his limousine) into the Thames’ cold, gaping maw.
“Vengeance,” Barkawi says, “must always be profound and absolute.”
But if not the Lord’s, vengeance—as this film depicts right up to its predictable finale—surely cycles around to more acts of vengeance.
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