LONDON HAS FALLEN REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

In 2013, Gerard Butler became the modern day John McClane in an action packed Die Hard set in the White House. The majority of the film was spent with Butler's Mike Banning working his way through the famous building and killing off terrorists whilst trying to save the President, Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart). Now, Mike Banning is back but this time both he and the President are in London for the Prime Minister's funeral.
If you enjoyed the previous film, I'm certain you'll enjoy this film. In Olympus, there was tension throughout and plenty of violence, in London, there's more of the same, except the film is set in England. However, instead of Banning having to trail round a famous building shooting terrorists left, right and centre, he has the President accompany him through the capital of England as they try to get away from the terrorists. For the majority of Olympus, the President was held hostage by the antagonist but he was brave and stood up for himself and the other hostages. I liked the President more in this film as he got more action and got to handle a gun for the first time. However, while Banning has no problem killing, the President finds it difficult at first asking Banning if its necessary.
The film has a really good opening. It opens in Pakistan where we meet the antagonist, Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul). He is responsible for several attacks across Europe. Because of this, Pentagon sends out a drone strike and supposedly killing Barkawi and his family. The film then transitions to two years later where the British Prime Minister has just died. All of the biggest world leaders travel to the capital for his funeral but disaster strikes when there is a sudden terrorist attack. Fortunately, the President is one of the last leaders left alive and Barkawi is determined to kidnap him and murder him live on air in front of the whole world. It's up to Banning to protect him and save the world from facing one of the biggest tragedies in history.
Both Butler and Eckhart give strong performances as Banning and President Asher. They have great chemistry together. Asher knows he can trust Banning to do the right thing. Unfortunately, both Morgan Freeman and Angela Bassett are underused. They were great characters in Olympus but (*spoiler*) within the first half hour, Bassett's character, Lynne Jacobs, is killed after a helicopter crash and Freeman's character, Allan Trumbull, is only used to communicate with Barkawi.
While this is a great film, I don't think it's as good as the first one, but most sequels aren't as good as the first. In my opinion, I think it's because there's a different director. Antoine Fuqua directed Olympus and didn't return to direct the sequel as he didn't like the script, so Babak Najafi went behind the lens instead. Najafi does a good job, he sets up the plot and, throughout the film, the action never stops until the film ends.
I had high expectations for this film, but, unfortunately, they weren't met. However, that doesn't mean it's a terrible film. I still enjoyed it, just not as much as the first.
I'd recommend this to fans of Olympus Has Fallen and Die Hard.
7/10
Read my review of Olympus Has Fallen here.