Why not cut the pretence and call this film, 'We Hate North Korea'? That's really all this film is: a childish warning from the ever- paranoid US to the Hermit Kingdom to tone down its bravado. It's the kind of film George W. Bush would call a masterpiece.
Aaron Eckhart stars as US President Benjamin Asher, who turns his back on his friend and trusted Secret Service Agent, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) because he saved him and not his wife in a fatal car accident.
Banning is relegated to a desk job, which he hates because he's much more productive when executing people in as few moves as possible. Luckily for him, his pencil pushing doesn't last long, as the North Koreans turn rhetoric into radicalism by mounting a full-scale surprise attack on Washington DC.
While a sophisticated fighter plane (which impressively blasts out a halo of rockets to defend itself against attack) causes mayhem from the sky, a well-ordered, precipitous assault takes place at ground level. Refuse trucks park in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and open fire on the gates. Citizens emerge out of panic-stricken crowds and detonate bombs to allow entry onto the lawn. Then a small army shoots its way into the White House to continue the carnage until the President and key members of his staff are captured. It takes just 15 minutes for the White House (codenamed Olympus) to fall.
That sequence is the single most impressive part of Antoine Fuqua's paranoid propaganda piece. I never once questioned the plausibility of the attack because we've seen too much to question what's possible. What I did question was Mike Banning volunteering himself as essentially the only form of resistance against this unprecedented terror attack.
Honestly, an invincible comic creation would take more care. Banning strolls into the White House amid a rampaging gun battle, totally oblivious to the prospect of a pointless death. I just thought he was arrogant.
And then I fell asleep. When I awoke 30 minutes later, my wife kindly assured me that I had missed nothing of importance. Banning had moved from one wing to another, surreptitiously executing a few goons along the way, while Asher and co. were toyed with by Kang (Rick Yune), the head terrorist as he made impossible demands of Acting President, Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman).
Never mind why Kang is putting himself out like this - it's preposterous. First timers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt wrote this hogwash. Is it a coincidence that their first names sound a bit like the word 'cretin'? Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster and Dylan McDermott are reliable in their bit parts but why add to the production invoice?
For those who won't sympathise with the President's plight, his son Conner is used as the secondary victim. He cleverly conceals himself in the White House walls, and Banning has to rescue him before he saves the world from being blown to pieces. As if he didn't have enough on his plate.
Aaron Eckhart stars as US President Benjamin Asher, who turns his back on his friend and trusted Secret Service Agent, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) because he saved him and not his wife in a fatal car accident.
Banning is relegated to a desk job, which he hates because he's much more productive when executing people in as few moves as possible. Luckily for him, his pencil pushing doesn't last long, as the North Koreans turn rhetoric into radicalism by mounting a full-scale surprise attack on Washington DC.
While a sophisticated fighter plane (which impressively blasts out a halo of rockets to defend itself against attack) causes mayhem from the sky, a well-ordered, precipitous assault takes place at ground level. Refuse trucks park in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and open fire on the gates. Citizens emerge out of panic-stricken crowds and detonate bombs to allow entry onto the lawn. Then a small army shoots its way into the White House to continue the carnage until the President and key members of his staff are captured. It takes just 15 minutes for the White House (codenamed Olympus) to fall.
That sequence is the single most impressive part of Antoine Fuqua's paranoid propaganda piece. I never once questioned the plausibility of the attack because we've seen too much to question what's possible. What I did question was Mike Banning volunteering himself as essentially the only form of resistance against this unprecedented terror attack.
Honestly, an invincible comic creation would take more care. Banning strolls into the White House amid a rampaging gun battle, totally oblivious to the prospect of a pointless death. I just thought he was arrogant.
And then I fell asleep. When I awoke 30 minutes later, my wife kindly assured me that I had missed nothing of importance. Banning had moved from one wing to another, surreptitiously executing a few goons along the way, while Asher and co. were toyed with by Kang (Rick Yune), the head terrorist as he made impossible demands of Acting President, Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman).
Never mind why Kang is putting himself out like this - it's preposterous. First timers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt wrote this hogwash. Is it a coincidence that their first names sound a bit like the word 'cretin'? Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster and Dylan McDermott are reliable in their bit parts but why add to the production invoice?
For those who won't sympathise with the President's plight, his son Conner is used as the secondary victim. He cleverly conceals himself in the White House walls, and Banning has to rescue him before he saves the world from being blown to pieces. As if he didn't have enough on his plate.