Olympus Has Fallen is a pretty explosion without anything behind it

What is it about the lone hero that is so appealing? It has been in stories since they’ve been written down, from way back in Babylonian times with the Epic of Gilgamesh. Naturally, the hero gets some help along the way, from wise old men, a wily old policeman, or the Pentagon. And the hero will seek something important for the arc of his character; revenge, rescuing someone, achieving transcendence (that one’s actually also as old as Gilgamesh). Maybe it’s because when it comes down to it, we are individuals that live in giant packs of other individuals. The idea of making a difference as a singular entity is relatable and immediately connective to all people. Doing something to gain the accolades and love of others, even posthumously, that’s a goal that seems pure and useful. Even when you’re rescuing the President of the United States from radical militant North Korean anti-separatists.

Olympus Has Fallen, from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), follows Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) as the head of the Secret Service detail for the President (Aaron Eckhart) and his family (wife and young son). But after a tragic accident, Mike gets sent to a desk job despite not actually having made any mistakes — except caring a bit too much about duty. So we’ve got our redemptive arc all setup are ready to go! Pretty standard sort of hero’s quest, cliched but classic. And the violence starts, when a North Korean terrorist group (conveniently disavowed by the NK government, although that was realistic enough) led by Kang (actual Korean-American Rick Yune) assaults the White House and actually manages to take the President and a few key government figures hostage. So it’s time for Mike to be literally the only one left who can save the President’s son and maybe save the world a bit too. He’s helped by a group of archetypes over at the Pentagon, including Angela Bassett as the head of the Secret Service and Morgan Freeman as the Speaker of the House forced to become acting President. Hmm, why does that seem so familiar?

Naturally there are a few predictable and slightly less predictable twists and turns to the story, ranging from the marginally interesting to the ridiculously stupid. I won’t spoil the endgame, but I found it so unbelievable, I couldn’t take the movie seriously at all. That wouldn’t be a problem except the movie takes itself seriously, despite it trying to be “Die Hard in the White House.” The writing and story were overall quite bland and simplistic, clearly without any real effort put into it. But the action scenes look good, although some scenes may be distressing to those who don’t like seeing the White House or DC citizens under attack. Gerard Butler is pretty good as the lone hero, with a great imposing physical presence and what seem like decent fighting moves. It’s a shame he’s barely given anything interesting or clever to say. The rest of the cast varies; Aaron Eckhart seems like he doesn’t care about it, while Morgan Freeman is just Morgan Freeman. But Rick Yune as the villainous Kang is actually pretty decent, probably because he has a lot of non-verbal acting scenes.

It’s probably apparent at this point that the movie suffers from a poor script despite looking pretty good and having some decent performances (a few exceptions aside). What this means is that the movie is a forgettable action movie that’s not that bad, but not well remembered. It won’t be a classic, just another blip on the radar.