Daniela Montiel
Contributing Writer
Many responsibilities are placed on the shoulders of the third movie in a series. There’s the expectation that it has to be better than the first two movies and reveal new truths about characters the audience has become attached to.
With Morgan Freeman, Gerard Butler, and Jada Pinkett Smith all in one film, only the best is anticipated.
The movie “Angel Has Fallen” is an action film rated R, mainly for its gruesome violence and strong themes.
The main character, Mike Banning, played by Gerard Butler, is a secret service agent who is framed.
In the first movie, you see Banning save the White House from a double agent and in the second he saves London from terrorists.
In this movie, Morgan Freeman plays the president who is attacked by a massive fleet of explosive drones, and Banning is set up as the mastermind behind the ambush.
Throughout the movie, he is fighting to prove his innocence to FBI agents, his partners, and the rest of the world.
Although it did have a great dosage of action and thrill, it misses one key part of any great movie: the element of surprise.
Based on knowledge from the other films, anyone could easily guess the ending, and the first five minutes of the movie gives away the entire plot.
This movie makes up for the painful predictability through its cast and themes.
The acting perfectly portrays each character, with Gerard Butler playing an extremely smart agent, Morgan Freeman as the leader of the United States, and Jada Pinkett Smith as a cold and calculating FBI agent.
It’s not difficult for the audience to generate an attachment to these characters.
Along with the acting, the messages embedded into the movie save it from death by predictability.
Society is reflected in multiple ways, such as how quickly a person is demonized by news stories that don’t have all the facts.
A scene is shown where officers are transporting Mike Banning to prison and one officer is sure Banning attacked the president whereas the other officer isn’t too certain. Today, it’s hard to be sure of what’s true or false in a news story.
The movie also places a magnifying glass on the topic of how war affects people. To do this, the movie introduces Mike Banning’s father, who adds dry humor into the mix.
Much like his father, Banning was also in the military, but contrast is shown between how they each handled civilian life after the military.
This contrast is also seen between Banning and a close military friend.
All in all, the movie “Angel Has Fallen” is a rollercoaster ride. It goes up and down with countless twists and turns, but you know where the final destination is.
Regardless, the movie offers an uplifting sense of good overcoming evil in an exciting, heart-racing way. This series wraps up with a movie that captures the essence of the ‘Fallen’ trilogy.
You can catch this flick at the Cinemark in Stroud Mall, and the first two movies can be watched on Amazon Prime Video. For Netflix users the first movie, “Olympus Has Fallen,” can be streamed.
Email Daniela at:
dmontiel@live.esu.edu
