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Trust Weighted
Very Good
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66Trust Points
Wick's Review
Summary - Very Good 3.5
Angel Has Fallen falls from the greatness reached by London Has Fallen to a very respectable Very Good, the same quality as the original Olympus Has Fallen, making for a damn good time at the movies.
Said another way, the White House headlined the very good Fallen 1, London the great Fallen 2.
Gerard Butler’s Mike Banning headlines the very good Fallen 3, though his link to the handle Angel never comes up. In fact, I don’t remember ever hearing “Angel”. Must’ve gotten edited out, though countless other twists, turns, shots and explosions are present and accounted for in Angel Has Fallen, i.e., Fallen 3.
On the plus side, Fallen 3 tweaks Russian collusion delusions in entertaining fashion, amid the usual carnage. Unfortunately, this time the carnage is largely American on American, the same fatal mistake that Fallen 1’s competitor White House Down made. Will fratricide kill a Fallen 4? Time will tell.
Acting - Very Good 3.5
Gerard Butler has made Mike Banning his personal piggy-bank, now essaying him for the third time. He’s like if Clint Eastwood from In the Line of Fire crossed with Sylvester Stallone, the Rambo of Repeat Roles.
- Morgan Freeman was Speaker of the House in Fallen 1, VPOTUS in Fallen 2 and is now President Trumbull in Fallen 3, which makes perfect sense. OTOH, who could’ve predicted in the pre-Trump days of Fallen 1 that in 2019 President Trumbull sounds like President Trump.
- Danny Huston underwhelms as Banning’s former Ranger teammate, but then Huston generally underwhelms. His famous father never underwhelmed, a fact that must rankle scion Danny.
- Tim Blake Nelson is properly sniveling as President Trumbull’s Veep.
- Nick Nolte chews scenery as Banning senior. The estranged father reenters the picture.
- Piper Perabo steps in as Mike’s wife, replacing Radha Mitchell from the two previous films.
- Jada Pinkett Smith doesn’t fully sell herself as a mucky-muck FBI Agent.
- Lance Reddick looks more alarmed than in charge as the Director of the Secret Service.
Male Stars - Great 4.0
Female Stars - Good 3.0
Female Costars - Good 3.0
Male Costars - Very Good 3.5
Film - Good 3.0
The great trailer nearby is better than the movie.
+ Crisply edited, it nails the key moments.
+ The drone attack that kicks-off the action seems plausible, massively lethal, and strategically important.
+ Angel gets explained, short for Guardian Angel, something apparently cut from the full film.
As to the Fallen Series
- Olympus was only an OK film.
- London was a great film.
- A solidly good film, Angel splits the difference, grade out at a 3.0 Good.
Direction - Very Good 3.5
Dialogue - OK 2.5
Music - OK 2.5
Visuals - Great 4.0
100+ stuntmen, one dozen armorers, plus the Bulgarian FX crew returns. Amongst the cool tricks, the bad guys use a cyber-backdoor into present-day vehicles to disable them.Edge - Risqué 2.4
Sex Innocent 1.0
Violence Savage 4.0
Rudeness Salty 2.1
Reality - Supernatural 3.5
Never mind the supernatural level of cinematic bs, films like Angel Has Fallen and the entire Fallen series are interesting in their fantastic glimpse at military possibility.
Angel Has Fallen stands out for the drone attack that kicks-off the action. Plausible and massively lethal, a Drone Swarm Strike like this would be strategically important to any power that could deliver it. Said another way, Angel Has Fallen can be remembered as DSS day.