Written by Tom Moore
While the summer movie season might be ending, the Fallen series attempts to keep the summer action-blockbuster spirit alive with the third film in the series: Angel Has Fallen.
The film once again catches viewers up with Secret Service agent Mike Bennet (Gerard Butler) as he mentally and physically recovers from the previous film’s events. Although Mike still has some fight left in him and he could even be the Director of the Secret Service, multiple concussions and insomnia make daily life a challenge and has everyone around him worried. However, when President Trumble (Morgan Freeman) is put into a coma and Mike’s entire team is decimated after a horrifying assassination attempt, Mike is suspected to be the one behind everything. Now on a path to clear his name, Mike must prove his innocence and confront ghosts of his past in order to stop things from getting worse.
Frankly, if you’ve seen or heard this plot before, Angel Has Fallen doesn’t add much new. There’s betrayal that’s incredibly obvious that’s followed by “surprises” that have no weight. Even the action sequences and special effects aren’t anything too special, with some of the effects being distractingly off and fights being so close-up that it’s hard to tell what’s happening. However, this isn’t to say that the film’s action doesn’t land hard punches, as there’s a grittiness to it and well-built suspense. It’s actually kind of impressive and surprising to see a film like this utilize its environment so well. Whether it was a convoy that’s sending Mike to a containment facility suddenly stopping in the pitch-black woods or having the frame be tight around the road Mike is driving to make it narrower, there’s some solid suspense-building that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
The strongest part of the film, though, is Butler, as he gives a charismatic and action-packed performance that’s incredibly entertaining to watch and – even if they don’t fully commit to it – gives Mike some incredibly strong development. Butler makes you feel a pretty wide range of emotions here and from being a family man to evading the police, he makes just about everything he does fun to watch. There’s also some interesting development with Mike since his injuries make things harder for him. Most action heroes will generally not be affected by all of the chaos and carnage around them, so that’s why it was nice to see Mike have to deal with how past events have left him a little broken. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t affect him that much and he still seemingly gets through most of the explosions and warfare without much more than a migraine, but it’s still refreshing to see that he’s not exactly perfect through everything. It’s also nice to see Mike relationship with Trumble develop and it’s probably one of the most endearing parts of the film. Although, I do question Trumble’s reasoning on Mike’s innocence with the sole use of his gut.
There’re also two nice performances from Danny Huston as Mike’s friend, Wade, and Nick Nolte as Mike’s father, Clay, as well as an unfortunately under-utilized performance from Jada Pinkett Smith as Agent Thompson. It’s not that Smith’s performance is bad here, her character just doesn’t ever play the important role that it seems like she would have and is ultimately forgettable. Nolte gives a very nice performance that will make viewers laugh and his chemistry with Butler is great. There’s even a funny post-credits scene with him and Mike that’s pretty great. However, his whole schtick of being anti-government is a little one-note and he’s a little too zany at times. It makes him stick out like a sore thumb because none of the other characters are really like this and I actually think that this kind of performance could’ve been better suited for Huston’s Wade.
Huston was also very likable here. While Wade’s primal desire for war is interesting, it’s not fully tapped into. Wade constantly refers to himself as a “lion waiting to hunt” and seemingly anxious for war, however, there’s no ferocity or ravenousness with Huston’s performance so you never feel this hunger. This is something that made me incredibly interested in Wade and his ending is perfect for his character, but they needed to be shown more for his desires to be felt and it could’ve led to more entertaining moments. The film’s ending could’ve also been better as it doesn’t commit enough to Mike’s realizations about himself and his job. It seemingly presents a fitting end for Mike and possibly the entire franchise, but it becomes gun-shy and just ends on a cliché note.
So, although summer might be ending, Angel Has Fallen will definitely extend the life of summer action blockbusters for viewers and give them a solidly entertaining action to enjoy as the fall movie season starts to ramp up.
