‘Angel’ series has fallen victim to extreme violence, predictability

By Rick Anderson

For Grays Harbor News Group

Since innocent characters wrongly accused of crimes represented one of his favorite themes, Alfred Hitchcock might have liked the basic plot of “Angel Has Fallen.”

The late director, however, probably wouldn’t have been too crazy about the actual movie — a violent, utterly predictable action film with none of Hitch’s vaunted subtlety.

In the third installment of a series that began with the 2003 movie “Olympus Has Fallen,” Gerard Butler returns as Secret Service agent Mike Banning.

Although the stress of his job has left him with migraine headaches and a possible addiction to pain-killing drugs, Banning is mulling an offer from President Allan Trumbull (played by Morgan Freeman) to lead the Secret Service. Before he can answer, a carefully orchestrated drone attack on the president’s party during a fishing trip kills every agent in the unit except Banning and leaves Trumbull in a coma.

Then evidence — including offshore bank accounts and supposed payments from Russian operatives — surfaces indicating that Banning plotted the attack.

Fleeing from the authorities, Banning takes refuge in the woods of West Virginia, where he providentially encounters his reclusive long-lost father (a bewhiskered Nick Nolte). Although long estranged from his family, Nolte’s character agrees to help his son try to clear his name and expose the true assassins.

One critic has described “Angel Has Fallen” as “a big ball of nothingness.” That’s a little harsh. People who enjoy non-stop action probably will like this film. Co-writer/director Ric Roman Waugh maintains a brisk pace and stages the often violent action sequences well. There’s an enjoyable scene at about the midway point in which Banning easily outwits a group of inept armed militiamen.

In the process, however, the filmmakers essentially sacrifice any sense of believability — or even suspense — in the story.

The by-the-numbers screenplay offers few surprises. Banning quickly (perhaps too quickly) identifies his old Army buddy Wade Jennings (played by Danny Huston), now the leader of a paramilitary unit, as the mastermind of the plot. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that nerdy-looking vice president (Tim Blake Nelson), who is running the country while Trumbull recuperates, is also complicit.

This is also the type of film in which heroes and villains alike react to danger with the same unrelenting use of the F word.

Often compared to the “Die Hard” movies, the “Fallen” franchise also covers some of the same territory as the “Mission: Impossible” series. But those movies had a sense of fun that is lacking here. Although the rugged, stolid Butler is more credible as an action figure than Tom Cruise, he doesn’t come within a mile of matching Cruise’s charisma.

Still a formidable actor at age 82, Freeman isn’t given enough to do in this film. That also applies to Nolte and Jada Pinkett Smith, who has a small role as a no-nonsense FBI agent.

Predictably, “Angel Has Fallen” contains some major credibility gaps — one coming when explosives detonated in a heavily wooded area somehow fail to ignite a forest fire.

Even more illogically, Banning is transformed from a highly publicized enemy of the state to a trusted defender of the free world in about 15 seconds. His reputation is cleared so thoroughly that he evidently can again be considered as the Secret Service director without apparent government or media skepticism.

Oddly enough, this was also a frequent flaw of Hitchcock movies. At the end of “North by Northwest,” for example, Cary Grant’s character evidently has few problems resuming his career as a New York advertising executive, even though eyewitnesses in the Big Apple identified him as the apparent murderer of a United Nations diplomat.

An improbable climax may be the only thing “North by Northwest” and “Angel Has Fallen” have in common.

Rick Anderson, retired sports editor of The Daily World, now is a contributing columnist. Reach him at rickwrite48@gmail.com.

Lionsgate Gerard Butler, left, and Morgan Freeman reprise their roles as Secret Service agent Mike Banning and President Allan Trumbull, respectively, in “Angel Has Fallen.”