Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

If there is any doubt in your mind that the White House can be taken, then that doubt is all you need to avoid the film Olympus Has Fallen.

I had my doubts and it made the first few scenes hard to swallow and predictable.  In real life the White House would be hard to capture, to consider it possible still limits you to a few possibilities.  And to watch in unfold on film makes those choices even fewer and apparent snuffing out the excitement. 

There was part in the opening scenes wherein the movie felt like it was just forcing it.   Secret Service agents charging out the main door, standing up, pistols in hand, when the door was taking in machine gun fire.

If you manage to get pass those few scenes then it’s all a matter of waiting for Gerard Butler, the lone survivor Secret Service agent in an occupied White House.  Plots such as this is nothing new in Hollywood.

Aaron Eckhart plays the President.  He was ok.  Morgan Freeman plays the Acting President since the real one has a gun pointed at his head.  Morgan is turning out to be the best Commander in Chief for movies ever, as he can always project calm and confidence.

Of all the actors, Melissa Leo for some reason jumps out at me.  She plays Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan and the way the character was treated, torture notwithstanding, does not suit the Department of Defense.  I wonder if there is a statement in there or is it just the movie forcing it like those Secret Service agents at the main door.  Sorry can’t get over that, why did they have to rush standing up toward machine gun fire?

Olympus Has Fallen does bring out great question but it’s not about how good or bad it was.  

In 1998, two films about asteroid impacts graced the theaters:  Armageddon and Deep Impact.  New powerful telescopes, big mysterious space, world ending in the year 2000, I can understand the craze back then.

Why is this film and its brother White House Down starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx showing in the same year like 1998?  What is happening in America that makes the destruction and eventual rebirth of the White House so appealing for Hollywood?

The land of make believe maybe sending out a message.