Angel Has Fallen Is A Mildly Engaging Actioner
Angel Has Fallen
Starring Gerard Butler, Nick Nolte, Morgan Freeman
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
Rating: ** ½( two and a half stars)
The ‘Fallen’ series features two fallen stars in its third instalment. Morgan Freeman who once drove Miss Daisy ,has been driving the supporters of MeToo up the wall. He manages to sneak back into this nominally interestingactioner, and then spends all his time inert on a hospital bed.Is this the ‘coma’ before the fullstop?
Freeman plays the President of the United States. He is as black as Obama and replaces the White President from the first two films of the ‘Fallen’ franchise.But this film is not about him. It’s about Mike Banning , the US Prez’s security chief played by Gerard Butler who has been out of luck since his fleeting fling with Priyanka Chopra a decade ago.I am not saying the two occurrences(the fling and the failure) are related. Just saying…
Butler is impressively tormented , tight-jawed and furious in a role that’s meant to shine his frayed valour on a violent landscape where guns and brave men roam helterksleter hoping the camera captures their derrindo in proportionate measures. The director does have an eye for streamlined stunt sequences.
I have to admit the action sequences here, specially the one where the President is ambushed in the ocean by drones, are first-rate.So please ignore all those green-screen jokes that have appeared even before the film’s release.However not all the well-planned action is executed with similar rectitude.
In one lengthy road chase, Butler drives fast in an unwieldy fan in pitch darkness as he is pursued by sundry enemies, some of them belonging to the American government.Here the lack of light and profusion of chaotic drama completely ruins the intended vigour of the road violence.
The main problem here is that the suspense regarding who the bad guys are, can be smelt out from miles away. The identity of the two main villains is revealed without any sense of flourish or triumph. I think the screenwriters knew they were negotiating on thin ice.
Just skidding!
While some of the performances are borderline preposterous(Jada Pinkett Smith,who’s Mrs Will Smith in real life, is ridiculously unconvincing as the FBI chief) Butler succeeds in making Banning a creature on the prowl to his last breath. His scenes with his wife(Piper Perabo) and littly baby are heart-meltingly tangible.. And Butler’s lengthy reconciliation with his hermetic wizened but undefeated dad(Nick Nolte) suffers from excessive playing-time. Sure, we understand Dad lives in isolation in the forest. Now could we get along with the plot, please?
Given the ‘Fallen’ series’ penchant for overdrive , Angel Has Fallen does well for itself, treading the safe ground and still whipping up quite a lot of heat and dust in a tale as predictable as a whodunit where you know Butler notdunnit.
