LONDON HAS FALLEN SYNOPSIS AND REVIEW
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Let me preface this by saying I enjoyed this movie's predecessor, Olympus Has Fallen, for what it was. It was a cliche, cheesy action flick that was the right amount of intense at all the right moments. London Has Fallen, however, was none of those things. I saw the film a few weeks after its DVD/Digital release. If I had seen it in a theater it might have been the first movie I ever walked out of.
The premise is as simplistic as Olympus Has Fallen's: Mike has his life back together. He's back with his ex-wife, they have a new son, and they have a great relationship - all he lamented not having in the first movie. Mike preps a resignation letter to leave the Secret Service to enjoy his happier life. The Prime Minister of Britain dies, and all world leaders gather in one place in London to pay their respects. Because of course, nobody would ever take advantage of that situation at all. Except, naturally, Bad Guys do.
A generic terrorist group plans an attack on all of the leaders. More baffling yet, the terrorists have infiltrated the politicians, British POLICE, and my personal favorite, about 90% of the Queen's Royal Guard. It was quite the sight seeing them suddenly open fire on a crowd. There's only so much suspension of disbelief that you can handle wondering just how many organizations the terrorists made it into without any problems. The terrorists kill most of the world leaders, except, naturally, the U.S. President, Ben Asher, manages to escape. I can hear the "U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A!" chants now. Considering they have been through this same thing on a smaller scale, you would think Mike and Ben would know how to handle the situation. Except they don't. They seem to have forgotten everything they went through a few years back. London is destroyed, more so than Washington had been. The terrorists get one of the Thames bridges, the Parliament building, and Westminster Abbey are all blown to smithereens. All vehicles are grounded. Car and train traffic is blocked, and no aircraft can fly. London is a ghost town. Mike, Ben, and some other staffers think it's a great idea to take a helicopter and be the only thing flying in the sky for miles. Naturally, the terrorists spot them and shoot down the aircraft. Only Mike and Ben survive with only a few scratches to boot. However, most of the helicopter is intact but about to explode. Mike tells Ben as much and urges him to "get to safety." Ben thinks only walking three feet away from the burning helicopter is "safe." And that's all the specifics I'll get into, because from then on out, it becomes a standard, forgettable action flick. Their odds and how they handle said odds don't improve much for the film's remaining hour and a half. They scrape by on luck alone and make stupid decisions that two men that have been through the situation twice should not have made.
Of course, everything ends well, and they beat the bad guys. Ben and Mike return to their families. Lastly, Mike destroys his resignation letter because despite wanting to be a family man for the first time in years at the film's start, he's decided his job is just as important as his family- if not more. Plot progression and character development who? Thankfully, this time they skip the overly corny American flag-waving.