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Gerard Butler

Angel Has Fallen: Banning Goes Boom!

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Angel Has Fallen sees the return of Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) who is arrested after he is believed to be responsible for the failed assassination attempt of U.S. President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman). After escaping from custody, Banning must evade the FBI and his own agency to discover the truth behind the attack. Desperate to clear his name, Banning must turnto unlikely allies in order to save his life and, more importantly, the entire country.

Directed (and co-written) by Ric Roman Waugh (Snitch), Angel is the third movie in the Fallen franchise, this time turning the conspiracy plot against Agent Banning himself. On the run for a crime he didn’t commit, the film doesn’t shy away from any of the particular clichés that fill the genre. Person from his past with an agenda? Check. A ‘higher power’ bent on destruction? Sure. FBI agent who may believe Banning is innocent despite the facts? Absolutely. (At one point, one yearns for Tommy Lee Jones’ speech about searching every ‘dog house, hen house and outhouse’ from The Fugitive.)

Gerard Butler stars as ‘Mike Banning’ in ANGEL HAS FALLEN. Photo Credit: Simon Varsano.

But none of that matters here.

From the outset, Angel knows exactly what it wants to offer its audience and it does so with confidence and style. What remains most important for action films like the Fallen franchise are the quality of the set pieces. As a result, despite the above plot clichés, Angel thankfully proves wildly entertaining through its action sequences and sheer desire for wanton destruction. Subtly has never been the goal for this franchise as Banning must duck, dodge and dive his way through increasingly difficult odds on his way to clear his name. Loud, boisterous and fun, the film unapologetically plays out like a theme park ride—and that is to its credit. (Personally, I found the sequences involving the drone attack or the semi-truck particularly fun.)

As Banning, Butler has clearly grown more comfortable in the role of the Secret Service agent and Angel allows him to explore the characters history more than previous films. Broken by the job physically and emotionally, Banning is weighing whether or not he can continue in his current role or if he should finally take a position behind a desk for the sake of his family. (“We’re lions,” an old friend reminds him.”) Time is clearly catching up with Banning and his priorities have changed with a young child and his wife to think about. As a result, the film is interested in exploring what it means to make sacrifices, whether it involves taking a bullet for the president or giving up the only thing you know for the sake of your family and health. (Weirdly, the film even tries to hold Banning’s decision up against his own father’s decision to abandon his family in his youth.) As a result, Butler gives the audience a chance to feel for the big lug as he works through his own personal drama while fighting for his life and reputation.

In the end, Angel Has Fallen admittedly has little depth to its script but that isn’t the goal. This is a film that wants to entertain you by assaulting your eyes and ears with excess and, for the most part, it works. Should the film succeed financially, one can fully expect to see more of Banning over the next few years as well. 

Now, pass the popcorn.

Angel has Fallen blows up the box office beginning on August 23rd, 2019

Gods of Egypt: Love Overcomes Death

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It’s been awhile since Gerard Butler nailed his name to the blockbuster wall with 300. But in between making Fallen films about terrorists in the U.S. and London, he starred in the ensemble piece, Gods of Egypt, about the brotherly rivalry of the Egyptian gods Set (Butler) and Osiris (Bryan Brown), and the young passion of the human thief, Bek (Brenton Thwaites), for his deceased lover (Courtney Eaton). All of this is set against a fabulously extravagant digital panorama of a historically incorrect Egypt…. and a superbly Caucasian cast playing Middle Eastern roles.

Um, what?

As the Internet buzzes with the criticism of the Ancient One in Doctor Strange and the casting of Ghost in the Shell, hot on the heels of a minority-light Academy Awards, Gods of Egypt attempts to do what Rick Riordan has done with Percy Jackson, only stealing from a non-European culture instead. [Seriously, Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther!) is the only really diversified inclusion here.] While it’s entertaining at times and ridiculous at others, Gods of Egypt takes the flair of Prince of Persia and splashes in a katabasis (a hero’s descent to the dead) like Orpheus and Eurydice.

godsofegypt2When Set wreaks havoc, destroying the kingdom to recreate it in his own image and stealing the eyes of his nephew, Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones), he also indirectly allows for the death of Bek’s lover, Zaya. Set wants to gain the attention and approval of his father, Ra (Geoffrey Rush), but he is unwilling to participate in the actions and decisions that Ra hopes for him. Instead, Set rules through fear and violence, setting up the quest of Horus and Bek in tandem to unseat Set and bring back Zaya from the underworld.

Everything gets a bit … convoluted… from there. This is ultimately a hero’s quest (Bek’s) and a coming-of-age story told in two parallels, between Set and Horus. One will choose to become the god he was meant to be and one will not; one will follow a life of service and faithfulness, while the other pursues his own selfish ends. (While the story is about a nephew and an uncle, their ages are ultimately ones that make it appear more about two brothers.) Therein lies the morale of the story, but wait, there’s more!

Bek and Zaya are in love, but Horus doesn’t believe that the underworld can be reversed, that anyone can come back from the dead. This is ultimately the tension of the Christian faith: can one come back from the dead? Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Horus comes to believe – but it takes the faith of Bek, the passion of his love, to prove it is possible. For all of the faults of Gods of Egypt -and there are many- it has an element of faith that rises above the expectations of the film’s C-level expectations (or 12% Rotten Tomatoes rating) to push belief to the forefront.