More blasts, less substance

Robert L Sungte, March 5, 2016, DHNS:

London Has Fallen
English (U/A)
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart 
Director: Babak Najafi
Rating: **

If you have seen “Olympus Has Fallen”, you may want to watch “London has Fallen” as it is a sequel to the 2013 action blockbuster. Serving faithfully as a Secret Service Agent, Mike (Butler) is on the edge of calling it a day at a time his wife is expecting their first child. 

However, when the British prime minister dies under mysterious circumstances, Mike is assigned to accompany US president Asher (Eckhart) to join other world leaders in paying homage to the UK leader in London. And as you can imagine, some terror group has their own evil design in the city and Mike must do everything to save the president.

Action movies are great entertainers, but “London Has Fallen” makes you feel like you have been served the same dish some time back. The action sequences are repetitive with small bits of realistic London settings. There is too much chaos and director Najafi fails to leave some space for imagination for the audience.

Butler as an action hero is good, but for a sequel that has a similar plot like the original, it is asking him too much. With sloppy dialogues, he and his co-stars like Morgan Freeman are reduced to showpieces devoid of anything to connect the characters with the audience. If you still insist on watching good guys smacking down terrorists despite the poor presentation, go for it.