Angel Has Fallen (2019)
The Hero Becomes the Fugitive
It’s time for some action! Excitement! Saving the president! In another entry of the storied history of doing a watching of a movie that I have no written record of it’s predecessors, tonight we get to visit a franchise that really just shows off how dangerous it is not just to be the President, but one of (specifically his best) Secret Service man. Get your vest and obvious earpiece out, tonight we check out Angel has Fallen.
Now, there is nothing this franchise wants to be other than an action movie. Yeah, it puts in the strides for getting some sort of character in there, building up that bro-mance between the Pres and his best man, and throwing some work into the man and his family - but it knows you are probably sitting down to watch some action. I figure the third installment wouldn’t be any different - perhaps maybe it would try to push the mystery angle a little harder, what with the main being setup, but largely I expect things to explode and at the end of the day a President to be saved after a boss fight. In that sense, the movie gives me just what I’d expect, with the same obvious attempted twists here and there that you can call before the movie even starts, let alone when it drops the first hint about any of it.
So yeah, perhaps the plot isn’t the strongest at times. When the number one guy whose in charge for a major promotion and has already saved the President’s life from extreme circumstances and death attempts twice in the past is completely ignored without so much as a sideways glance at the claims of a setup - well, let’s just say it’s not the movies most believable moment. It’s also not the movie’s least believable, but hey - it’s an action movie! Although we do start and end with protecting the president, this movie does get a lot more into that fugitive on the run style of action though - it’s more our lead trying to stay alive and prove his innocence in classic action hero fashion than it is an actual movie on constantly protecting the president - and that does allow for some decent feeling of difference to the movie over it’s prequels. The movie also tries to build the main up a bit more by dredging up some of his past - both in friends and family - and by progressing his story by making him all achey and older feeling. Sure, largely that becomes irrelevant during most of the fight scenes, but at least they tried for the most part.
The acting here is still pretty good. Yes, the president is out of the picture for most of this one - but he does a fine job in the few moments he has, with some pretty shinning moments of good old Freeman scene-stealing at times. Butler does a good job as well - he’ll play up an emotional part a little as needed, but for the most part it’s either emphasizing the aches or being a boss and kicking some teeth in. It’s perhaps a bit overdone when it comes to the aches - but honestly, I fault that less on the performance and more on the fact they probably wanted to emphasize it in the story. You do what you gotta do, you know? The inclusion of our main’s Dad as a character brings out some real fun moments - even if they can be a bit bombastic at times - and is a welcome inclusion, even if it does drop in some serious daddy issues and abandonment problems as well. It doesn’t really hinder the plot any, and although they don’t really make it super hard a driving force or anything of that sort to the plot, it could arguably feel somewhere between not utilized enough or not necessary.
A nice little fishing trip
Audio does it’s job here as well. You hear everything given the fine balancing job, despite numerous explosions and the likes. Gunfire, punching, cutting, exploding - it all sounds satisfactory. Actor deliveries are quite well done as well, with perhaps a few lines feeling a bit overdone but mostly all fitting perfectly well. There’s a few one-liners in here as well, although it’s nothing super important to write home about as far as action flicks go. The more musical backdrop side of the movie does well as far as tensions, energy, and overall support goes with a scene or two that it really does wonders to add to the mood - particularly the car chase. It might not be something that sticks in your head for days to come, but it’s quite well appreciated during the runtime anyways.
Effects don’t feel like they held much back here. Outside of one green-screen backdrop element towards the end, it all feels like it had a budget sunk into it and they really wanted it to look good. Some of the more high unbelievable elements certainly fall into this category as well - the way a building gets blown up in particular feels like it’s sole purpose is so they could blow up a building and it would look cool. I mean, yes, it does look cool, but it’s some real hack the world territory man. It being a modern type of movie, the costumes aren’t anything over the top or really stand out but they do fit well into the setting. Security and aggressor elements look suitably tactical or prepared, and nothing barks at your attention to take you out of the movie. There’s also a decent variety of guns in there, which although largely doesn’t matter what kind they are when on screen, it’s just nice to see a variety of cool looking pieces getting used. This does lead at times to a bit of a detail problem though - I’m not exactly counting bullets in here, and they do reload every now and then which is nice, but then you get things like a gun battle through a window where only one side actually causes any damage to the window when they shoot - you’ll probably notice it pretty easily when it happens. Movie breaker? Not really - but it does make the scene feel a bit less polished than many of the others.
As already mentioned, the plot can feel a bit basic, and the characters largely don’t feel like they are really breaking the mold in the length of the story. This isn’t really that bad, given the fact most of us here would be wanting action, and that action is done well. Some of the action, however, can be pretty emo with it’s level of cutting. Look, I get that it’s a thing to help splice stuff together and add the disorienting feeling of how hectic it would be to be in the fight to the watcher, but I also just really prefer seeing some nice shots that hold it out and let the actors have the time to really flush it out. At times you need those cuts - showing people or elements that aren’t in the shot, such as if a character is watching one thing explode, then it cuts to show something in the opposite direction explode without the explosion masking out the character - but especially when the frame is dialed in real close, the frantic cutting can get a bit annoying - even if like me you don’t get lost with whats happening when it does it. It’s not overly cut to ribbons, and plenty of scenes pull off their action without twitching like someone who just hit themselves with a taser - but some of them do some unnecessary cutting (in regards to the moment being presented, not related to the actual need from takes to cut around mistakes and the likes) regardless.
Somebody caught the big one.
It’s fun. If you enjoyed the others of the franchise you’ll like this one, and the fact it takes the fugitive spin makes it feel a little fresh - even if the fugitive spin isn’t in itself new to other movies. The actors do good, the action is fun to watch, the music helps support everything, and the plot facilitates the events of the movie well. It can get a bit “just because” at times, or perhaps even a bit over the top - which will be good for some and probably annoying for others - but overall it’s a fun little package. I enjoyed it, and it’s probably worth at least a rent to folks who like action flicks.