LONDON HAS FALLEN (Babak Najafi). See listing. Some subtitles. 99 minutes. Rating: N
London Has Fallen is as dopey as its predecessor, Olympus Has Fallen. But it’s dopey in an entirely different way.
In Antoine Fuqua’s 2013 original, Gerard Butler’s Secret Service agent, Mike Banning, die-hards his way through the White House after North Korean terrorists take President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and half of his cabinet hostage.
Babak Najafi’s sequel takes place on a much larger canvas, as Banning escorts Asher to the funeral of the British prime minister only to find the world’s leaders targets in a massive terrorist plot, with Asher as the top prize.
Butler still charges into every action sequence as though he’s a human tank, which is kind of fun, but now it’s at odds with Najafi’s flat, lifeless execution of generic carnage and digital explosions.
I mean, say what you will about Fuqua’s over-the-top sadism, but at least it’s an ethos.
