Ryan Shoots First: Angel Has Fallen
The Fallen saga has returned with its third installment in the trilogy, Angel has Fallen, and in it Gerard Butler reprises his role as secret service agent Mike Banning.
In this new film, there has been an attempt on the President’s life, who is once again sparingly played by Morgan Freeman. Freeman is not in the film much but I give the team credit for bringing him back at what I guess was great cost. The relationship built over the previous films matters when they could have just recast with a new president in office. It always shows when a movie is nothing more than a cash in and viewers can smell it from a mile away. But it is things like keeping Freeman on board, that tell me the director and creators really care about the story they are telling and even though it is an action film it is handled with care and attention.
The original film, Olympus Has Fallen was a lot of fun. Between Olympus and its clone brother White House Down, I believe Olympus was the far superior film and I was happy to see it survive to get it’s sequel, London Has Fallen. But I feel London suffered from “sequelitis” where everything was blown out of proportion and the movie was too big to control. It was nice to see Angel Has Fallen narrow in and focus on its main character. That is not to say the movie isn’t loaded with action and the type of comeback, defiant attitude you pay Gerard Butler for, it is certainly there but Butler’s character almost disappeared in the spectacle of London Has Fallen. To see him be the focus of Angel and explore some more Solid Snake like aspects of his character I enjoyed. He is getting older and starting to question his humanity and where his place is in this world, which is a great avenue for aging action stars to go down.
The toned down Angel Has Fallen also made me think about the third film in the Taken series where Brian Mills was framed and on the run. There are some similarities here for how the series has flowed.
The film has a powerful cast outside the two Executive Bros including Danny Hudson bringing his trademark character and the booming voice of Lance Reddick. Piper Perabo also plays Mike’s wife, which just adds more to his character. Rounding out the cast is the legendary Nick Nolte who at this point I believe plays the exact same bearded woodsman character in any film he’s in. I have to imagine he doesn’t even have a trailer just unzips his tent and wanders onto set around call time. His character while slightly a caricature at this point is actually pretty great in the film as Mike’s father.
The Fallen series has managed to stay fresh by changing up its archetypes with the first being the “Die Hard with a twist” genre the second being the “International Disaster” and now we have a “Hero Manhunt” film. While it can be easy to look at these films and just assume they are mindless action, and of course in some aspects they are, they also bring enough to differentiate themselves from the loaded pack and keep justifying their existence. I do not know where the series is going and what other global threats Mike Banning can stop but I for one am looking forward to finding out and am happy my tax dollars are going to his salary.
