Morgan Freeman’s face at the end of London Has Fallen says it all. As we watch some of the most ridiculous, borderline moronic, and just impossible action sequences, Freeman just watches with a glare of bewilderment as the chaos ensues. With lines tricked in like “oh my god” or “how do we stop this madman” – you know, the usual. The sad thing is most of the characters in London Has Fallen do just that, watch and don’t do anything. NOT all characters, but most. The film is a watered down big budget expenditure hidden in a low-budget riff in what looks like one of the cheapest films made this year. I don’t know if it was the plane crashing sequence that looked as though somebody piece this together on an MAC pro or what, but this movie looks sloppy. It’s one thing to have one of the most obscene plots of all time (that I can live with – we go to the movies to escape) but it’s another thing for us to actually take it seriously. ​

At the start, London Has Fallen picks up the pieces of where Olympus Has Fallen left off. Only this time our POTUS (Aaron Eckhart) is being monitored heavily. While his hot-shot head of security detail Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is still the right hand man. Now, you would think the sudden death of one of the most powerful beings on the planet, the British Prime Minister – would cause some speculation. OH WAIT it does. Literally everyone on the planet advises the President not to go to such a heavily sanctioned trip without anytime to prepare. As every world leader in the country will be in attendance. This sounds fishy to me, BUT let’s go and do it anyway…did we learn anything from the first movie? Of course not. Then there are telecasts during the movie declaring how this is “the most secure event in the world” – only to have that narrative crumble instantly. You wonder how any of this could happen, obviously we aren’t suppose to think about that, but it’s so hard not too.

Once again we found our heroes Banning and the President on the run from a group of well known terrorists as they destroy every national landmark, as well as countless civilian lives, like clockwork. Does this seem all too familiar? The film’s main villain this time around (if that’s what you want to call him – the man never comes out of a computer screen. configuring my theory of how people in this film watch and do nothing) is Aamir Barkawi he is #6 on the 10 most wanted list. BUT has slipped under the radar for the better half of two years, after society believed him to be dead from a nuclear attack headed by the US government. His intentions are to publicly execute the President for billions of people to see.

In retrospect this plot is actually quite fun and seeing some of the most notorious landmarks from overseas be reduced to CGI fodder evokes a certain giddy feeling. Then again London Has Fallen hardly ups the stakes, and instead demotes itself to a below average actioner that get’s consumed by a narrative that never gears into focus. Olympus Has Fallen was a welcome surprise for me, mainly because I did not expect anything from it (and why would I) other than mindless action explosions. Plus I had never seen a movie where the White House was infiltrated like it was in that film. Bottom line is the unpredictable stunt sequences and the earnestness of a clever Gerard Butler, who was eerily reminiscent of a hipster John McClane, made the film watchable. Hell, it was more than watchable it was a fantastic piece of fabulous over-the-top implausible trash. WhileLondon Has Fallen is also over-the-top implausible trash, it just does not create that same feeling of excitement the original did for me three years ago.

There is a set-up for an inevitable sequel, but we will have to wait for box office returns to see if this one becomes a surprise hit like the original. My only suggestion for the next installment is that we forget about the logistics of the plot and focus on the mindless action escapades. If there is one thing I hate while watching an action film, it’s when I’m forced to pay attention to a hokey narrative when I all I want is something simple, with a few hours that I can just be distracted by flashy stunts.London Has Fallen has that, it just doesn’t benefit from being a sequel that nobody asked for and having the production value of a made for TV movie. C-