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I watched LONDON HAS FALLEN last night (you can stream it on Netflix)

posted 8 years ago by ringfire211
7 replies | jump to latest

It started out promisingly but then went down the toilet pretty quickly. The basic idea that almost all the London cops were working for the terrorists was really absurd, even if we do discover at the end that the head of Mi5 was in on it (hence presumably was able to easily facilitate all this). Plus the CGI was really shoddy. During the neauseatingly long gun battle at the end the gunfire looked like the laser beams from STAR WARS or MOONRAKER.

I really enjoyed OLYMPUS as it was both a nod to the violent actioners of the 80s and 90s (perhaps even too violent) as well as basically being DIE HARD IN A WHITE HOUSE, with a wise-cracking Gerard Butler (though not as wise-cracking as Bruce Willis) as the hero. You had the confined space of one building, the White House, so the tension was pretty high. Plus the director was Antoine Fuqua, who hasn't let me down yet. Basically it was everything that DIE HARD 5 wasn't but should have been.

This time around, in LONDON, there's little tension because they're running around the city. Now, I'm not saying it can't be done this way successfully (DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE worked this plot wonderfully, proving that you don't need to be stuck in a skyscraper to make it work) but it's just a mess here. No sense of direction or a sign of intelligence, just a series of chases and shootings and stabbings and maimings. It feels more like EXPENDABLES than anything else. The villains are unmemorable (they can't match Rick Yune), the CGI looks much worse than in the first, the basic plot is far-fetched as I mentioned. And the overkill basically makes the first one look tame in comparison (and that's saying something). This new director ain't no Fuqua that's for sure. Apparently Fuqua turned it down after reading the script and I don't blame him.

I need more than shootings and stabbings. Those things are superfluous and are not the lifeblood of cinema.

Boo!!! But I'm sure Bap will enjoy.

Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!

[–] philwhite-411-828978 8 years ago

It is crap.

[–] RichardTheBruce 8 years ago

I thought this one spelt doom for the Bond franchise.

Again.

I'm motivated by my Duty.

[–] HugeDaiCottermee 8 years ago

Verily I say unto thee..I did enjoy it very much and saw it months ago. Never rashly assume that you or anyone would see a major action film before I do.

[–] ringfire211 8 years ago

But didn't you find it lacking compared to the first one?

The finale in particular was very underwhelming. Just great balls of fire everywhere (and very CG to boot!) with little tension or suspense. It's like you're an observer of someone playing one of those shoot-em-up games, where the baddies fall dead left and right by the thousands as our hero keeps going on and on like he's the Terminator. Gimme a break! I grew out of this stuff when I turned 16.

The whole damn building is leveled by an explosion that looked like Hiroshima which kills everyone inside EXCEPT the prez and his secret service man. They're just fine, well enough to even crack a joke. Puuuhleease!!!

Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!

[–] HugeDaiCottermee 8 years ago

Verily I say unto thee..tension and suspense have their place in some movies certainly (Hitchcock of course) but for genre action franchises like this a plethora of punches, stabbings, chases, shootouts and explosions are the order of the day and I wouldn't have it any other way.This is why I rate TND so highly amongst the Bond movies.

[–] ringfire211 8 years ago

Yes but TND is actually "intelligent" compared to this.

Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!

[–] RichardTheBruce 8 years ago

I watched it and liked it. Maybe not as good as the first, but I liked it even better than I liked hating on WHITE HOUSE DOWN.

Good cast and action. CGI didn't impress, but what the heck. A great idea to put the badass in a building with a hundred terrorists. I wouldn't have killed off Angela Bassett's character, but that's how it goes. I actually don't go for the gleefully-blow-up-Western-historal-fixtures presentation in a lot of big budget films, it wasn't overdone here. And they're shown in repair at the end.

Bonus: can't believe I heard Morgan Freeman mouth all those closing hawkishly Conservative lines.

Thumbs up.

I'm motivated by my Duty.