Olympus Has Fallen

Sorry this took so long to post. Better late than never I guess.

Wow. Could it be? A Gerard Butler movie that doesn't suck? Why yes :) I wasn't really planning on seeing this movie mainly because of him. I have nothing against Gerard Butler but lately all he seems to do is these god awful romantic comedies. But I decided to give this movie a chance when I found out Morgan Freeman and Aaron Eckhart are in it. I'm glad I did. Olympus Has Fallen ended up being much better than I thought it would be.

All you really need to about the plot is Gerard Butler plays a Secret Service agent named Mike Banning. He has a pretty close relationship with President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his family, especially the President's son Connor. Everything is going great until one night something tragic happens and it forces Banning to take a desk job at the Treasurer's office, which he obviously isn't happy about. But then one day the White House is overtaken by a Korean terrorist who also kidnaps the President (there is a reason behind why he does this but I can't really remember what it is). As you might have guessed, Banning ends up being the only one who can rescue the President and save America from a big disaster.

Gerard Butler was the biggest surprise of this movie. Not that he was great, but  he made the character very likable  Aaron Eckhart did a good job too. I've been a big fan of his ever since he played Harvey Dent/Two Face in The Dark Knight. Morgan Freeman plays the Speaker of the House and he's amazing as always. Although he really doesn't have as big a role as the trailers/posters lead you to believe.

The fight scenes were pretty bad ass, although the editing kind of sucked. At times scenes were cut so quick that I couldn't tell what was going on. And some scenes were way too dark.

This movie is quite violent  just to warn you. Almost too much at times. Don't get me wrong, I like a good violent, bloody movie as much as the next person, but there's people literally getting their heads blown up in what seems like every other scene and after awhile it's like "Enough already!"

The dialog was cheesy at times, but other times it was pretty epic. Especially a lot of Gerard Butler's lines.

This is also one of those movies where it's best not to think too much about what's going on. Yes, the plot is kinda absurd and in this post 9/11 world there's no way in hell terrorist would get that close to the White House.

But still, the movie is pretty enjoyable if you don't take things too seriously. It's Die Hard meets 24 meets Independence Day (minus the aliens of course).

I hope Gerard Butler keeps doing more of these types of movies. He's really good in them. Maybe it's not too late for him after all and he can redeem himself :)

My Rating: 7.5/10