Angel Has Fallen

Angel Has Fallen

“Angel Has Fallen,” an action-packed thriller that is sleepy and dopey, disappoints for more reasons than one. The second sequel to “Olympus Has Fallen,” it has no high bar to clear. The first movie was a by the numbers revenge fantasy about emasculated, savior-thirsty Americans and ruthless North Koreans that’s most notable for its excessive violence. Basically, America is graphically imperiled in order to prove then-interim President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) right when he says: “As a nation, we are never stronger than when we are tested.”

At the very least, “Olympus Has Fallen” is a credible survivalist wet dream. In that movie, America is (temporarily) made great again only after the Washington Monument is toppled, the President gets tied up and the Secretary of Defense gets punched in the face and kicked in the belly before being dragged across the floor while defiantly screaming the Pledge of Allegiance. Banning does what no officially sanctioned US agents can: To defeat the North Koreans he kills a bunch of bad guys without any remorse or reprisal; like shooting in the head the North Korean hostage that he has tied up just to spook another North Korean agent (“Your friend seemed like a funny guy”). It’s not good, but I couldn’t stop watching it.

I couldn’t wait to stop watching “Angel Has Fallen,” an indifferently assembled cash-in shot with way too many shaky, unfocused close-ups which seem designed to re-assure viewers of this otherwise bland drama’s surface deep intensity. Being a timid lament about contemporary American trust issues (the Russians are to blame, but almost incidentally), “Angel Has Fallen” sic’s Banning now rickety from concussion-induced migraines and insomnia on disloyal American mercenaries led by well you’ll figure that part out soon enough.

The makers of “Angel Has Fallen” don’t seem to care about their characters (or patriotic ass-whoopings) as much as their predecessors did. Instead, we get a few tentative signs of introspection from Banning he’s sick, has a family to protect and an estranged dad, too! that are immediately glossed over for the sake of pumping up a few flat set pieces that hail from the Tony Scott School of Frenzied Action Filmmaking, only they’re not as dynamic or good looking as Scott’s jittery photography. If you’re going to be mean-spirited and exploitative, at least do it convincingly.

The problem for the makers of “Angel Has Fallen” is that they have to make Banning into a rebel who knows he’s got to “ride a desk” to retirement. But their Banning is closer to John McClane in “A Good Day to Die Hard” than in “Die Hard 2: Die Harder.” He gripes (and occasionally shows symptoms) about having the action movie equivalent of PTSD, but never succumbs to it particularly when it’s time to cut through handcuffs, light up a platoon of armed mercs or strategically run away.

That’s what life is like for a trained ex-soldier: a sad, fuzzy sense of your own mortality that gets rudely interrupted by gunfights, drone strikes and homemade bombs that affirm your delusions of grandeur. Because Banning has a job to do: protect Trumbull, an even-keeled leader who promises never to rush our country into war but insists we stay prepared just in case it’s ever Boom Boom Go Time.

Banning’s moral righteousness stands out against the movie’s immoral Russian baddies, all of whom betray their country because they miss going to war and also really like cash money.

I’d care more about his values if his creators had cared more about the action scenes, dialogue, characterizations and basic plot of their movie. The editing and sound design are fine enough. Close-ups on Butler’s and Freeman’s blotchy but determined faces only underline the film’s general please like me desperation; so do action scenes that overemphasize smoke, gunfire flashes and flying debris at the expense of choreography, visual coherence or human personality. Even those sequences where (no spoilers!) Banning Sr. blows up some faceless goons feel perfunctory and underwhelming.

These key moments any scene featuring great character actors like Tim Blake Nelson or Lance Reddick are rushed through with negligible conviction and even less inspiration. If this sort of no-brow entertainment is your thing, you may find something to like about “Angel Has Fallen.” That doesn’t mean you need what these guys are selling, though.

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