Authorities take Secret Service agent Mike Banning into custody for the failed assassination attempt of U.S. President Allan Trumbull. After escaping from his captors, Banning must evade the FBI and his own agency to find the real threat to the president. Desperate to uncover the truth, he soon turns to unlikely allies to help clear his name and save the country from imminent danger.
After 4 years, Gerald Butler and Morgan Freeman return for another film in the series - once again providing us with a variety of exciting shootouts, a thrilling storyline and an interesting series of characters. This time though, the film stems from a different perspective, by taking the infamous Mike Banning and twisting the story to portray him as the enemy. What this film brings though, is a really surprising and action-packed storyline - but does it deliver or does the film crash and burn? Here are my thoughts.
Firstly, I'll start off with what I liked about the film. What I love about this film and the series is how they begin, by taking the time to really get to grips with the characters and their surroundings and relationships it helps to establish them as not only an action character but also as a normal person too. By throwing us straight into an army training exercise, not only did the quick and fast-paced scenes ensure that the film got our attention right from the beginning but the immersive battle scenes and chases gave us subtle hints and messages that Mike wouldn't be a character to mess about with. The film doesn't take the time to tell us everything about his past and his life which is important because it ensures that throughout the film we only focus on the important elements of his character and what is important to the story of the film, keeping our focus on the exciting parts to his character. I love how well thought out the characters act and feel here though, throughout the film the dialogue always feels really immersive and engaging which helps to show how the characters really feel and to personify their emotions, to example Mike and Wade’s early conversations really help to make their friendship feel realistic and genuine, and this is backed up by the stories that they tell us - further cementing their genuine feeling and also giving us fun little pieces of information about the characters. Mike isn’t the only character who feels really exciting and engaging here too, the whole character set feels really immersive and realistic in their own ways. For example, seeing how protective the president's bodyguards are in the hospital scenes makes the feel realistic and genuine, whereas other characters such as the enemies are made to feel exciting in their own way which is expertly communicated to us. Seeing them in a really mysterious way helped to build up our interest in the enemies, quick shots where we see what they are doing but have no idea who they really ensure that we latch on to them, this leads us to feel engaged and asking ourselves, “Who are they?” “What are they doing?” “Why?” Which then means that they feel much more exciting. I thought that the way in which the film immersed us in the story by using action and meaning behind the story really was the best part of the film, seeing how the characters really genuinely made us feel as if they believed he Mike was guilty was really great because it solidified them as characters and made us question it ourselves, even though we had seen the events. As the film progresses though, a variety of cool and exciting elements help to keep the storyline and the film exciting - seeing new characters coming in and out really help to keep the film feeling fresh. I especially liked Mike’s Dad, not only did his fort and explosives bring a lot of action to the film, but also an element of humour that we didn’t know we wanted, but it was effective and proved to be useful in making him feel unique and likeable. A key issue that many films like this face is that the characters don’t make realistic choices, that isn’t the case here. I thought that the choices made by Mike not only felt realistic but also clever, seeing the variety of clues he left on his journey and how they were executed really made Mike feel clever and actually as if he was secret service which I loved! What makes this film stand out from the others is that narrative is more plausible than other action films and you do see Butler dealing with the results of his profession. This is not a Teflon Super Hero who has bullets bounce off his chest. This is a man who bears his physical and psychological scars from his years in service and has a hard time letting go of the work even though it is what he believes he is best suited for. Morgan Freeman gives a very strong performance as does Nick Nolte who stole many of the scenes in which he was in and provided some real Wild Card comic relief and action to the film. I loved it, seeing small little elements to the characters such as Mike’s mental and physical health problems playing a part in his decisions makes him feel real and a genuine character which I love, this genuine feeling to him means that it’s really fun and enjoyable to watch him throughout the film. The ‘baddies’ here are also really unique and fresh, after a massive twist which informs us that they are his army mates (I predicted that it would be Gentry, oops!) and the VP I was really surprised, but it made sense. They didn’t feel dumb and predictable like a typical villainous character. They were smart and unpredictable, and they felt like a genuine group of high-level secret service agents who had access to a variety of high tech and exciting pieces of equipment, their choices and attacks such as the gas attacks on the hospital also show their intelligence - it isn’t a guns-blazing attack but more of an intelligent one by blowing up the hospital, which shows creativity and intelligence which I really thought was exciting. There also seems to be a real motive behind the enemies too, which makes their emotions feel contagious and powerful, as we see them change and develop as the film passes by. I was definitely impressed with the characters here.
Not only were the characters great but so was the plot and execution of the film too. First of all, I loved the plot idea! I thought that by switching up how the film plays out, that not only does it offer something new to the series but it also offers something new to the genre of film by taking the typical presidential assassination and really creating a powerful storyline out of it with immersive scenes. I loved seeing scenes like the hostages at the petrol station, and then the truck police chase - all of these scenes helped to really establish the plot of the film as a full-on storyline instead of just a few key events. These cool chases and pieces of the story were key to making the whole plot seem like more than just an assassination - but a story, and a good one at that! The overall film feels like it is very well put together though, the good variety of character dialogue ensures that scenes are explained before they are carried out which makes sure that we have a good understanding of what is going on, and the various shots of the police/Mike/enemies helps to give us a great indication of how all three are dealing with the various scenarios which feels really engaging. I also loved how the manhunt of Mike felt, seeing him going through various scenarios to escape the police and public eye after being arrested and broken out of the police car early on was a really good way to make the film feel exciting and fast-paced early on. But also it adds in a sense of intensity because we see how many times Mike comes to being arrested or caught but the consistent chase by the police and the enemies gives the film a structure because it helps us to grasp onto the story and the purpose behind his actions. The film also incorporates in twists into the storyline which is well received here and turns the film upside down, these twists help to keep the flow of the film and to give it an exciting turn which adds a bit of fire to maybe some worn of scenes. These twists are great though and unexpected, such as the VP and the army working together to frame Russia and Mike - not only does it feel real but it's also just really exciting to watch and witness. As this is an action film, there's one make or break thing it needs to have a lot of, action! The amount of action here is amazing, scenes such as the attack at the beginning feel really exciting and fast-paced, feeling the whizzing and high pitched sounds from the drones and then the devastating shots of the dead floating makes sure that scenes have a good mixture of excitement and purpose, this carries through to the various shootouts in the mall and on the streets. They're fast-paced, they utilise a lot of quick shots but they are also lengthy which means that we can really focus on and get excited by the shootouts because we have long enough for them to feel immersive and to hold some resemblance to a real shootout, but not too long so that it drags out. I just loved the variety of locations too, which made it an experience, seeing a car chase, seeing woodlands, hospitals, urban areas all involved really makes the film feel exciting regardless of the location. Overall though, the story is very easy to follow with the help of dialogue and it feels realistic, engaging and exciting enough to add a few surprises for us which keeps us on the edge of our seats.
The film wasn't perfect though, as no film is, unfortunately. One of my main issues was relating to some of the realism of the film (I know that if you judge a film just off realism then no film is 100% accurate but cmon there's a lot right with this film!). Seeing the fight at Mike’s Dad’s battle shed in the woods, we witness a battle where a lot of explosives are used, afterwards the dead enemies are lined up against the house - surely a lot more of the woods would have been burnt as there didn't seem to be any way of stopping the large fire? There was nothing! I was also longing for a bit more from the storyline too, I wanted it to be more clear as to the motives behind the enemies choices such as a single reason for getting the president out of power? Examples might be like to start another war, to make money, to get personal revenge... But just for me, it didn't seem massively clear as to why they wanted to frame Mike and get away with it, nor did the VP feel very convincing at all. Definitely felt like some weak acting there, there was no motivation to really try and sell the story on that line.
Overall, I would give this film an 8.5. I was very impressed, I really liked the characters, I loved how the variety of different events and scenes in the film offered a lot to a variety of different audiences and I just really liked how immersive and exciting the film felt. The plot was also really fresh and took us through a variety of different scenarios, battles and locations which meant that we had a lot to experience and get excited by! Sure, the film had a few problems with regards to acting and realism, but overall it is a very good film and will definitely spark interest for the series - I already want to watch London has fallen again after all these years! Would I recommend seeing this film? Yes, 100%! It's a great story with some great scenes and battles in it which results in an easy to understand, great film. Definitely not one to miss!
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review! I hope you have a lovely day and please if you have time, head over to my Facebook page and give it a like. This is my passion and every like and view I receive means the world to me. ❤
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