The Spider-Man Retrospective Series - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Written In May 2014

 I feel betrayed… I went on and on about how great The Amazing Spider-Man is, I defended that movie from harsh critics, I told fellow fans of the Raimi series it’s really good and you should go see it, I even said the score isn’t that good but it’s still perfectly enjoyable, and what does the team behind these movies do? They let go of Alvin Sargent, who had some uncredited additions to David Koepp’s screenplay all the way back on the original Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe, and then went on to be a credited screenwriter on Spider-Man 2-The Amazing Spider-Man, and they also let go of Steve Kloves who penned all EIGHT of the Harry Potter movies! And who do they replace them with.

These two assholes. Don’t know them? Maybe you’ll know their names, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Still don’t know them. Well maybe their credits will sound familiar. The first two of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies and both of JJ Abrams’s Star Trek movies… Yep, these two got their talentless paws on SPIDER-MAN!

Thank GOD, Abrams didn’t decided to wheel them in for Star Wars - Episode VII!

Speaking of science fiction series with the word Star in them, let me ask you something. What do Benedict Cumberbatch and Emma Stone have in common? Why they were both in recent franchises that Kurtzman and Orci wrote and produced that had “secrets” in them that were poorly hidden in advertising. Every fan left and right theorized last year that Cumberbatch was Khan, and what happened? It turns out he was Khan all along and everyone lied… Poorly! And with this movie? Every single person online was theorizing that Gwen would die in the second movie. Hell, everyone was theorizing that the minute Peter whispered to the poor girl that the promises you can’t keep are the best kind and then she smiled at what he was implying. And then the infamous set photos started coming out, and there were two things that really got people’s heads spinning.

Shailine Woodley as Mary-Jane Watson. Why did this get people chatting? Because they thought she wasn’t “hot” enough.

The other was this picture of Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.

Why did this get people chatting, because these are the exact same clothes Gwen Stacy wore in the comics…

The night she died!

I, despite my better judgement, concluded that they wouldn’t actually kill her and it would be a fake out. But then this trailer came out and it hinted at one particular thing. They showed Gwen in that costume I just showed you on top of some kind of giant gear looking rather frightened, and then they showed Peter as Spider-Man, but without his mask on, screaming bloody murder. Gwen in the outfit she wore when she died in 1973 and Peter screaming in agony. Gee! I wonder what that could mean! And so then I came to the conclusion that they were going to kill her, but they shouldn’t. And what did they do?

DEAD!

There were so many things you could’ve done with this character, with this actress, but instead you’re going to just kill her off? What the hell man!

But since I told you that much, I might as well tell you what else happens.

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

Scientist Richard Parker records a video message to explain his disappearance. Later, he and his wife, Mary, are aboard a private jet hijacked by a man sent to assassinate Richard. With the pilot dead, the plane crashes.

In the present, Richard’s son Peter continues to fight crime as Spider-Man. He pursues and apprehends Aleksei Sytsevich, who attempted to steal a truck containing plutonium vials. During the chase, Spider-Man rescues OsCorp Industries employee Max Dillon. While speaking by phone with Gwen Stacy, Peter sees a vision of her father, police captain George Stacy, reminding him to leave Gwen out of it. Afterward, Peter meets with Gwen at their high school graduation ceremony, but insists he needs to keep his vow to her father and ends their relationship.

Peter’s childhood friend Harry Osborn returns to Manhattan to see his terminally ill father Norman, CEO of OsCorp. Norman explains his illness is hereditary, and Harry is at the age where it first develops. Norman gives Harry a small device he claims contains his life’s work. The next day, Norman dies and Harry is appointed the new OsCorp CEO. He humiliates the OsCorp board, which has been privy to Norman’s secret biogenetic projects for foreign military powers.

Thinking that they have become friends, Max idolizes Spider-Man. While tending to some maintenance in an OsCorp laboratory, he loses his balance and falls into a tank of genetically modified electric eels. They attack him, and he mutates into a living electric generator. Meanwhile, Peter attempts to maintain a friendship with Gwen, but she reveals she may move to England for school. Before they can discuss it, Max wanders into Times Square and accidentally causes a blackout. Spider-Man attempts to calm him down, but the police fire at Max, making him lose his temper and attack. Spider-Man eventually stops him, and Max is taken toRavencroft Institute.

The first symptoms of Harry’s illness show, and he uses the device Norman gave him to deduce that Spider-Man’s blood could help save him. He asks Peter, who has been selling photos of Spider-Man to the Daily Bugle, for help finding Spider-Man. Peter refuses, unsure of what effects the transfusion would have. The OsCorp board-members frame Harry for covering up Max’s accident, and remove him as CEO. Harry’s assistant, Felicia, informs him of equipment that could help him, so he makes a deal with Max (now calling himself Electro) to get him back inside the OsCorp building. There he finds a suit of armor and other equipment made by Norman, as well as venom from the now-destroyed genetically altered spiders. Instead of curing him, they transform him into a hideous, goblin-like creature.

Peter uses information left by his father to locate the video message in an abandoned subway station’s hidden lab. Richard explains he had to leave because he refused to cooperate with Norman Osborn’s biogenetic weaponization plans. Peter then hears a voicemail from Gwen, telling him she was offered the scholarship in England and is heading to the airport earlier than expected. He manages to catch her and professes his love for her, and they agree to go to England together. Electro causes another blackout, and Peter heads off to fight him. Gwen follows, and together they restore power and overload Electro’s body, killing him. Afterward, the transformed Harry arrives equipped with Norman’s armor and weaponry; upon seeing Gwen, Harry deduces Spider-Man’s true identity and, swearing revenge for being refused the blood transfusion, kidnaps her. He fights Spider-Man at the top of a clock tower. Spider-Man subdues Harry, but Gwen falls to her death, despite Spider-Man’s attempt to save her.

Five months later, Peter has given up being Spider-Man and often visits Gwen’s grave. Harry is healing from his transformations, and his associate Gustav Fiers (the “man in the shadows” from the first film) breaks Sytsevich out of prison and equips him with an electromechanical suit of armor. Calling himself the Rhino, he rampages through the streets. But a recording of Gwen’s graduation speech inspires Peter to return as Spider-Man and fight him.

Okay, let me preface this. I did enjoy this movie, but I have to say, it’s been my least enjoyable film of the franchise. I’ve seen worse superhero movies, and in fact, I’ve seen worse movies based on Marvel characters, but this is pretty fucking weak. Not just for Gwen’s stupid demise. BUT! There is still plenty to enjoy about this movie, this is not a movie so awful that it’ll have a longer list of cons than pros and that I feel the need to address the cons first. It’s still a pretty entertaining movie, but you may want turn your brain off on this one… And prepare yourself for anger when you realize Orci is writing a planned Venom movie with Kurtzman to direct…

But on the brighter side, it’s being cowritten by the writer of Men In Black and the Bill & Ted movies, with Drew Goddard, who did cowrote and directed Cabin In The Woods, set to writer and MAYBE direct The Sinister Six. So we may be in luck…

Keep in mind I said maybe though.

PROS:

• Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Sally Field are still great in their returning roles! Although between the three of them, Emma gets the least showy improvement. If you complained about Andrew’s Spidey still not getting enough jokes out, you’re needs will be more than satiated here. As for Sally? Well as Martin from Double Toasted put it at one point it seems like Sally forgot she was making a Spider-Man movie and gives a genuinely moving performance. Great job Mrs. Field!
• Paul Giamatti makes a delightfully (and intentionally) hammy performance as Aleksei Sytsevich AKA The Rhino. You know how a lot of actors play their Russian accents like this really low toned murmur but it sounds like their threatening you, Giamatti opts for the classic over the top angry and mocking kind of accent where he’s always going on and on about he’s going to crush you. When he gets into the actual rhino suit, it’s a delight to see Paul just trash the streets of New York! I know some folks are pissed they went with the robot suit, but I think it works. It’s also a little bit refreshing to see a bad guy in this franchise, who doesn’t become a bad guy because he goes crazy or because he hates spider-man, he was already a bad guy when he met spidey and was still a bad guy after he met him.
• Jamie Foxx’s Electro, in my opinion, doesn’t suffer from a poor motivation or characterization that turns on a dime, because it’s pretty clear this guy was already a bit off before his accident, so it makes sense that this accident would only emphasize that. It makes sense to me that the guy would feel betrayed by Spider-Man, in that, it doesn’t actually make any sense. By which I mean I, a presumably rational person, do not understand why someone would feel betrayed by their idol for simply not remembering my name after one encounter, so much so that they would want to kill them violently. BUT on the other hand, this guy is clearly already mentally ill, I can understand that this guy is making his own rationalizations for his own eschewed worldview. And that aside, while I personally didn’t care for the angle they took with him later, Foxx’s initial scene as Max Dillon is actually kind of heartwarming. The idea of this guy, who feels trampled upon daily, actually being made to feel important is kind of nice. And when he becomes Electro, good fuckity hell is he intimidating! I don’t think he’s the best villain of this franchise, but I think I rank him between Church’s Sandman and Giamatti’s Rhino, with Venom and the two Harrys in 7th, 8th and 9th place. The physical look of Electro is extremely well done as well, four for the guys on SFX team, you guys earned it!
• He’s only in the movie for five minutes, but Chris Cooper makes for a pretty good turn as Norman Osborn. He’s sufficiently creepy and he has the right mix of a critical attitude toward his son while also coming off like he genuinely cares for him.
• Dane DeHaan’s a better Harry than James Franco ever was, he has some great moments here, but he doesn’t get enough time to really properly show what he’s got. Undoubtedly though are his scenes from about the moment where he’s let go from the company to about the moment he teams up with Electro.
• Colm Feore doesn’t do a ton in the movie, but he’s a welcome presence and very enjoyable to watch,
• We finally figure out more of what that damn mystery they teased to us in Amazing Spider-Man 1 was! Thank you!
• Hans Zimmer does some of his best work here in collaboration with the Magnificent Six, who include the musicians, Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Mike Einziger of Incubus, electronic artist, Junkie XL (who previously did music for this year’s 300: Rise of an Empire and Divergent), and up and coming composers, Steve Mazzaro (who previously did music for last year’s Bullet To The Head, starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa, and Sung Kang) and Andrew Kawczynzki. This arguably the best score ever made for a Spider-Man movie, it sounds so awesome! Give this theme a listen, it’s shorter than Elfman and Horner’s but it’s go such a great sound to it! But the real fun tune is Electro’s theme, they already showed a bit of it in the trailers with having Pharrell constantly going “Paranoia paranoia paranoia paranoia paranoia” whenever you see Electro on screen.
• They didn’t do it well, but I like the idea of Peter always seeing Captain Stacy whenever he’s with Gwen. You can tell it’s still on his mind that the Captain made him promise to leave Gwen out of his affairs and he’s breaking that promise.

CONS:

• Gwen Stacy’s death is the most telegraphed demise I’ve ever fucking seen in a cinema in my entire life. On graduation day she makes her valedictorian she makes a speech about how you live your life, then when Peter’s angsting about his failed relationship he listens to “Gone, Gone, Gone” by Philip Philips. Don’t know it? Well the chorus of the tune is “And I would do it for you, for you. Baby, I’m not moving on I love you long after you’re gone. For you, for you. You will never sleep alone. I love you long after you’re gone And long after you’re gone, gone, gone.“ Although, that’s not even what really pissed me off about that scene though. Raimi used popular music in his movies too, but you know what music he used? He used music that had already stood the test of time. These were songs people already kind of knew even if they were kind of old. Like the sequence in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 where Peter just tries to go about his day as an ordinary schlub, after having given up being Spider-Man, they played "Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” by BJ Thomas. I’m not gonna criticize Philip Philips or his song, I’m just saying, if you had to have that useless scene did you have to be playing a Billboard Top 40 hit? Couldn’t you have played something less recent or actually fit the scene?
• You might recall that earlier in the week, I made an early jab at this movie for basically aping the same origin story as Jim Carrey’s Riddler in Batman Forever, you know, nerd worships hero, nerd feels betrayed by hero, nerd becomes a bad guy because they now hate the hero. Only this time, it doesn’t seem like they’re doing that for a reason. The Incredibles, like a lot of Pixar films, had dozens upon dozens of references to other members of it’s genre. One of which, was the origin of the riddler. They were spoofing it. in Iron Man 3, the entire movie was in part an homage to 90’s action comedies, mostly because the director and cowriter of the movie is Shane Black, who wrote Lethal Weapon and The Last Action Hero. Here though, I don’t get it. It seems like they’re playing it sincerely, like you’re actually supposed to feel bad for this stalker guy when he becomes a super villain. It wasn’t even sincere when they first did in Batman Forever! They were playing it as a joke because it was Jim Carrey, and the fact both of Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies were supposed to be goofy comedies in the vein of basically Adam West’s Batman but 30 years later! Did you really think people were going to take this seriously? Because I certainly don’t!
• You know how I said Peter was basically seeing Captain Stacy all the time and that they didn’t do it well? Here’s why. The entire fucking time he’s just standing there staring at Peter in disapproval. Why? The visions of Uncle Ben worked in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man sequels is because A. They did something different each time. And B. It was Uncle Ben actually telling Peter something or Peter visualizing something that might’ve happened. In Spider-Man 2 when Peter tells Uncle Ben that he is Spider-Man No More, it’s effective because it was Ben saying Peter needs to just power through and keep fighting the good fight, but Peter won’t listen because he’s tired of his life being shit. It’s like the moment in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm where Bruce is in front of his mother and father’s grave and he’s telling them that he can’t be Batman after all, because it’s different now, he’s happy with his life and he never foresaw that. Here, it’s not dramatic, it’s just stupid.
• Here’s another ding against Electro. During the incident at Time Square, we see Max transition into Electro, the change to villainy is pretty believable in my opinion at least. I can also buy that after being tortured and held captive for so long Max’s personality would become more sinister, but what I don’t buy is how suddenly Electro’s manner of speaking becomes totally different. He tells the scientists who torture him that they’d “better make damn sure” that they kill him this time or else he’ll be the one killing them, then later he tells Spider-Man during their final fight that he’ll be like a god to the people of New York. Where did these delusions of grandeur come from? I mean I guess they’re not delusions seeing as how, he has the ability to do that, but why does he suddenly have the desire to become like a god? I don’t get it.
• What was the point of shoehorning Green Goblin? Was it just to kill Gwen? Was it to set up for Sinister Six? Couldn’t you have done that in Part 3? He doesn’t really do anything and Harry’s back to normal at the end of the movie, and while he was here, he wasn’t all that scary.
• It feels too soon to kill Gwen. They should’ve waited for the third movie to pull that trigger. I feel like that way we would’ve known Gwen well enough to just be sad instead of feeling kind of cheated because we barely knew her at this rate.
• You know what Peter did after Gwen died? He sat in front of his girlfriend’s grave for five months… He didn’t throw himself into his heroics to honor her, he just sat down and waited until the combination of a peptalk from Aunt May, a posthumous message from Gwen, and when rhino showing up and started wrecking shit. Some hero you turned out to be Parker.
• I really hate how it’s most blatantly obvious that Aunt May knows Peter is Spidey and yet Peter is blissfully unaware of that fact and won’t just come out and tell her.
• The little kid at the end. I get what they were going for here, and I’m aware that this was actually Andrew’s idea, so I’ll not to be too harsh here, but I’m sorry dude, this just doesn’t work. The little kid just standing there while this homicidal gangster in a robot suit does nothing but mock him? No, in real life that could would be fucking dead. I’m sorry. I’m not saying the kid should’ve died, that’s not at all what I think should’ve happened. Here’s my idea, the little kid walks up to the Rhino, the Rhino fires in his direction to scare him, then it looks like Rhino’s actually gonna shoot him this time and Spidey sweeps in at the last second. No bantering, just getting to business because there are lives at stake.

All in all, this one was a disappointment. There are worse movies out right now that you could see. And there are going to be much worse movies out later this year, am I right Michael?

Yeah, that’s gonna suck a lot worse than anything this movie has to offer. So look, if you still want to see it, don’t let me discourage you. Go see it. See it in 3D or IMAX if you want! It deserves that treatment! But for, this was a big letdown. What folks thought of Man of Steel last year is what I think of this movie now. I’m gonna give The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a 6.2 out of 10.

I’ll be back on some other day to review some other thing. For now though I’m just gonna call it a day.

Die Hard In The White House 2013 Review Miniseries - Olympus Has Fallen (March 2013) vs White House Down (June 2013)

Written In January 2014

 Let me tell you what criteria the movies will be graded upon.

1. General Plot Development And Overall Simplicity In Story Telling
2. Quality Of The Action
3. Best Hero
4. Best President
5. Best Villain
6. Best Supporting Cast
7. Who Told The Story Best

So let’s get into

With Plot Development And Story Telling Simplicity

So the first thing you’ll notice when comparing these two films is one word when labeling their genres. When you go to Wikipedia, Olympus is labeled as just an action thriller. White House Down however is labeled as a political action thriller. That four syllable right away says whether or not you’ll like this movie. Olympus Has Fallen knows it’s just a silly action movie that’s meant to satisfy your lust for violence. White House Down thinks it has that rare ability to challenge you politically while still delivering spectacular action. This is a test very few filmmakers even DARE to ATTEMPT to pass. And essentially, the fellow who made the movie where Will Smith punches an alien in the face and yells “WELCOME TO EARTH!” thinks he has the intelligence to do the same thing the Bourne trilogy and the Green Zone did. So I hear you ask, did Roland Emmerich pass the test that was aced by men like Paul Greengrass? Well, I think I’ll let Gandalf answer that one for me.

Now I’m not saying you need to be an intelligent filmmaker to pull off a movie that is essentially, as I’ve said before, Die Hard In The White House, but you’re usually most likely to succeed when you don’t try to make it something more than that. When you add political intrigue into the mix, you really need to know what your talking about and how to talk about it. That’s where people like Paul Greengrass succeed. They know how to approach these subjects in a way that is still entertaining but also shows their opinion in a way people understand.

And that’s where Olympus Has Fallen succeeds! It completely oversteps politics and says, to paraphrase RedLetterMedia’s Mr. Plinkett, “We’re not making The Usual Suspects, we’re making a movie that’s aimed at action junkies!”  But speaking of smart filmmakers, this movie is made by the gentleman who directed Training Day with Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington. A movie about a rookie police officer paired with a corrupt cop who’s working with drug dealers… Suddenly I feel like these guys took the wrong movie…

Well anywho, like I was saying, one of Olympus’s advantages is it’s LACK of intelligence. It simply aspires to be an entertaining action film that will have young adult males in their thirties wanting to tattoo Gerard Butler’s face over their so that they will be as badass as him.

So that’s that for actual simplicity, but what about the plot? Well with Olympus, we only have really two twists. A retired secret service agent we meet in the first 10 minutes of the movie is working with the terrorists and in one scene it looks like the main bad guy blew himself and the president to hell but really just faked his death. And these are both pretty standard action beats I’d say. The plot moves pretty smoothly from A to Z without any real hiccups I’d say.

White House Down however? That’s a different story.

1. The head of secret service who is retiring today turns out to be an asshole with a vendetta against the president because his son was killed in the only unit he ever sent to Afghanistan.
2. The wife of this head is seemingly appalled at first but turns out to be a full supporter of her husband’s insane actions.
3. The head isn’t actually mad at the president because his son is dead because of him, he’s mad because he never stepped up to the plate when the country needed him, meaning he never sent in more troops.
4. The speaker of the house is actually the mastermind behind the head of secret service’s plot and was doing all of this to become president because he was in bed with military contractors.

There’s a lot more twists in there, but those are the main ones I wanted to address. Now let me ask you this, in a movie where one of the first things the terrorists do once inside the white house is defile a portrait of George Washington, why do these twists need to be here? Why not just give use a strait forward balls to the walls action flick? Well let me tell you why.

There, I think I made my point. There was absolutely no point in these twists, because they were poorly written and directed unconvincingly. On to the next point.

Quality Of The Action

This one’s more a matter of personal taste when you get right down to it, and even then, this is the most visual part of the medium, so I think I’ll hold off on explaining and use some displaying.

White House Down

Olympus Has Fallen

three links vs one link because i chose three 45 second clips and one 2 minute 20 second clip. But my point is, the action in Olympus has tension and focus. It doesn’t waste time cracking jokes, it just goes strait for the punches, is put in dark lighting, and has a score that doesn’t feel light and fun. It puts you on the edge of your seat, while White House Down leaves you just wanting to put popcorn in your mouth. Here’s a thought, it had been about 6 months since I last saw Olympus in theaters when it came back on Netflix, and I still remembered action beats and lines of dialogue from this movie. I saw White House Down 3 days ago and I had to go to YouTube to remember what fights happened in it. When you make an action sequence that you can’t remember after three days, you need to be fired! Now onto the next three points which I hope will emphasize why I feel the way I do about the action.

Best Hero

Why are we even comparing these two? On action credibility alone Gerard already has Channing beat!

Here’s a small list of action movies that Gerard Butler has done:

• 300
• Gamer

Here’s an equally small list of action movies that Channing Tatum has starred in:

• GI Joe: Rise of Cobra
• Haywire

Not convinced, well, let me expend on why I think the actual character is better than the other.

Mike Banning, head of secret service’s presidential detail and a former US Army Ranger. John Cale, a college dropout who joined the military after marrying his sweetheart and giving birth to a daughter, did multiple tours of duty where he saved a fellow soldier’s life who’s father got him into the US Capitol Police Department and has tried and failed on multiple occasions to become a secret service agent. Banning is a trained killer who will move mountains or die trying, to quote his superior Lynne Jacobs (Angela Basset). Cale, by his own admission, joined the military and then police in an attempt to just get away from his troubles.

Now back to Butler and Tatum, regardless of what one might think of either as an actual actor, here’s one thing every action movie needs, a convincing lead. Bruce Willis excelled as John McClane in the original Die Hard because he comes off as someone who can get by more on being a pain in the ass than an actual combatant, but when he actually has to become a combatant, you see this guy is definitely the type of guy you want by your side in a drug bust if your a police officer. Arnold Schwarzenager excelled in Terminator 2 as the titular robot because he’s built like a machine and is convincing when holding a bigass weapon. Keanu Reeves excelled as Neo in the first Matrix movie because he looks like someone with the frustration and the need to become someone greater than who he is, and actually does have martial arts skills. Gerard Butler is 44 years old and 6 foot 2 inches. This guy LOOKS the part of someone who can go toe to toe with a trained martial artist determined to kill him, and wind up beating the martial artist. Channing Tatum is 33 years old and an inch shorter. This guys looks like he’s more interested in cracking jokes with Jamie Foxx instead of saving the big white house he lives in. This in my opinion, is part of the reason why White House Down fails and Olympus Has Fallen succeeds, the character of Mike Banning is intimidating, raw, and believable. The character of John Cale, not so much.

Best President

This one is easy, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln!

Oh wait! You meant in the two Die Hard knock offs, I see! My bad, haha. Let’s see, that’s Aaron Eckheart and Jamie Foxx.

Ah tartar sauce! Wrong character again! I need the one with them as the president!

Yes! Thank you!

Anywho, enough joking around, let’s talk about these characters. First off, as I’ve said before, Jamie Foxx’s President James W. Sawyer is as much an allusion to Barack Obama as Channing Tatum’s John Cale is to John McClane. If you realize this when watching the film, then your liking of him becomes even more dependent on your political views, because the fact that this guy is so adamantly anti-war is bound to ruffle some of the more conservative movie goers. In fact, that’s partly why I prefer Aaron Eckheart’s President (Benjamin Asher), and really Olympus Has Fallen in general, THEY DON’T GET INTO POLITICS THEY JUST GIVE YOU THE ACTION!

But to be completely fair, I wasn’t into Foxx’s president before I realized he was Obama in all but name, I didn’t like him because he was written to be a saint. Early on in the movie he’s telling a story to a reporter about how one time when he was a little kid his mother knew that his best friend was going to try to steal for food, and she invited him over and said he come by any time he wanted to, and from then on he vowed to help the poor or something to that effect. In other words, he’s perfect. He’s probably such a boy scout he’d leave the scouts when he found out they don’t support gay rights, a fact which bothers him because his older brother is gay or something. It’s not that I think this sort of attitude is wrong, it’s that he’s written to be so entirely flawless and Foxx’s delivery is just irritatingly corny!

While Aaron Eckheart, right from his first moment on screen, we see that he’s an aggressive personality. He’s exorcising with Mike, by duking it out with him in a boxing match. And also, he holds grudges. During a car accident on a bridge, Mike makes the call to save him but not the first lady. Benjamin then demotes Mike to a desk job at the Treasury Department. When he’s confronted by Dylan McDermot’s character while being held captive in the White House Bunker by Kang, he calls him a traitor to his face and butts him in the head. He’s fucking pissed and he’s not gonna hide it.

Honestly, the one thing that makes this decision a little bit difficult is a simple concept I referenced back in my White House Down review.

Precisely Mr. Spock, thank you once again. Now in Olympus Has Fallen, the villain Kang (Rick Yune) asks two members of the president’s staff for the code to something called Cerberus, a nuclear self destruct program that would detonate any nuke launched before it reaches it’s target. Kang violently tortures both staff members for these codes, neither member gives in of their own accord, but do so when ordered to by Asher. Asher doesn’t realize what Kang’s intentions are, and simply figures that whatever they are, he’ll need all three codes and he won’t talk once it’s him being tortured. While this does show a genuine concern for others, it comes off as Ben being stupid for not realizing what’s happening and even dumber when he knows they’ll be used as leverage against him later.

However, with White House Down, in one scene we get a similar situation with James. John’s daughter Emily is being held at gunpoint with James being told by the terrorists that if he does not launch a nuclear strike against the middle east they’ll kill her. John looks the little girl in the eyes, and you can hear it in his voice that he’s not proud of what he’s saying, but he knows what the right thing to do is and needs her to understand as well. He tells her that if he gives this man what he wants, he’ll kill millions of people and he can’t let that happen. He asks if she understands that. She tearfully says yes and nods her head.

This is the one time where I turned in favor of this movie, and was the one thing that kept me from giving it a lower grade than I did. So ultimately, while I think Asher is the better character and frankly the more competent leader, I really have to give props to Sawyer on this one. So, I’m going to call this one a tie, but only slightly.

Best Villain

This one is tricky, because like with the last category, I already know which I like best, but admittedly, these two are both pretty darn great villains! There not exactly someone you’d speak of in the same breath as characters like Mr. Freeze, Loki, the Joker, Red Skull, or the like, but they are far more than adaquete in the role as “the bad guy.”

So in Olympus Has Fallen we have Rick Yune as Kang Yeonsak, a North Korean terrorist who has personally masterminded multiple attacks against western governments ultimately in the hope of creating one single united Korea. In White House Down we have James Woods as Martin Walker, the retiring head of the secret service’s presidential detail who masterminds an attack against the white house and an attempt to kidnap the president.

So there’s two things I want to address real quick that actually have a connection. Now naturally whenever you go to see a movie, you’ll head for your favorite social media outlet and just post something about how much you liked the movie, or maybe some thoughts you had about it. Well a lot of folks went on Twitter after seeing Olympus Has Fallen and they said some things…

Yeah, and subsequently, a lot of folks also had a knee-jerk reaction to these tweets and the movie itself really. Such as this article here.

Let me explain something here. To the racist morons I say, well, you’re morons. Not every Asian you meet is a North Korean militant out to destroy your precious ‘Merica. Not every Middle Eastern you meet is an Arab Muslim terrorist out to bomb your favorite landmarks. Not every Latino you meet is an illegal alien out to rob you of your freedom. Not every person who isn’t white is somehow a threat to you and your way of life. If you meet a person who’s skin is a different color than yours, either leave them be or treat them as you would any other person, unless your an asshole to people in general in which case.. Kudos I suppose.

As for the morons who cry racism, North Korea is a country that doesn’t exactly like the United States of America. It makes sense in a movie where terrorists take over the White House, try to kidnap the president and kill dozens of innocent people both American and Foreign alike (it’s DC, there’s bound to be a few folks who aren’t from the States but want to see some neat landmarks) that the bad guys would be connected to North Korea. Yes, a handful of the bad guys were disguised as South Korean secret service, but honestly, that’s not a plot device you don’t see with white people. Plenty of action films have bad guys who are disguised as peaceful diplomatic individuals. And with that being said, this is also a good opportunity for Asian actors. After seeing him kill it as a bad guy in this movie, I really want to see Rick Yune do more movies. Hell, I could see as Namor if Marvel ever puts that character on screen. What would be better? Casting the Russians as bad guys making it both an unoriginal move and leaving more white people in the movie? I think not.

And speaking of the diversity, let’s get to White House Down on this one. Jamie Foxx,along with Lance Reddick and Garcelle Beauvais are the only three named characters in this film who are not white. The only other nonwhite character I noticed in the film was the guy who works the gate at the White House’s North Lawn. That’s four black people to Olympus Has Fallen’s two African-Americans and 5+ Asian actors. And yet because one of the characters in White House Down is the president and played by a big name actor like Jamie Foxx, nobody really seems to care about the overwhelmingly white cast? Wouldn’t it have been interesting to cast, say, Michael Jai White, as the leader of James Woods’ thugs, (played in film by Jason Clarke of Zero Dark Thirty fame) who is still an ex-Delta Force member but also a disgruntled Black Panther who hates Sawyer for all that he HASN’T done for black people? You literally could’ve kept the movie exactly the same, except that all of the thugs in the movie are played by black actors. Or perhaps you could’ve cast Michael B. Jordan in Channing Tatum’s place? The same character still (heck, you could even leave him with a white ex-wife and Joey King as his daughter), but now you’ve added diversity to your movie. Or how about casting maybe Samuel L. Jackson in James Woods place. Same exact character, just a different skin color. How unique would it have been for a black leader to be pitted against a fellow black man? Admittedly, even black people acknowledge that they aren’t saying shit against Obama, as they recently joked about a couple months ago on SNL when Kerry Washington hosted, in a sketch with herself, Jay Pharaoh and Kenan Thompson. But still, it would’ve actually made a strange improvement upon the film and said to audiences, “Hey, if the president is black, then why can’t the heroes be black too? Or the bad guys for that matter?” But instead, you write the thugs as disgruntled ex-military and white supremacists. Yeah, real clever Roland, real clever.

Okay, sorry about that rant. Now let’s talk about the villains we actually have. The thugs in White House Down are canon fodder. They’re there just to be shoot and/or be shot at. But James Woods, here’s an interesting idea. This guy protects the president for a living. His son was a member of the army and was part of the one single battalion Jamie Foxx ever sent overseas during his entire presidency. Walker (Woods) is angry about this, but not because it cost him his son, he mourned his son and was proud that he sacrificed his life for his country. He’s angry, because Sawyer (Foxx) didn’t send even more troops to Afghanistan. He believes in the war on terror, and thinks that the best solution now is to basically wipe the damn region off the face of the Earth. He tells Sawyer that the moment he ordered the unit with his son to the middle east was the one moment he truly respected him. “You were the president,” he says, “For five minutes!”

Rick Yune’s Kang on the other hand, is quite different. He was born in North Korea with a father who was killed during a fight at the DMZ, his mother was killed by a landmine when they tried to escape to the south. Subsequently as an adult he became a terrorist mastermind staging multiple attacks and bombings, including the titular attack on the white house and the bombing of the British Embassy in South Korea. He’s a true Korean patriot who loves his country, and hates the United States for interrupting the Civil War that caused such a powerful division in Korea and cost him his family. But he’s a die hard gentleman for being such a raging psychopath. When holding a man at knifepoint to get his launch code for Cerberus, he shows pure delight. But when beating the female sectary of defense, he hesitates. He politely asks her for her code, when she outright says no, he knocks her down and begins kicking her in the stomach. His face shows that he’s not terribly fond of this activity but will still do it out of necessity. The entire time he tries to talk her down, noting that “In Korea, we have a saying, saying something a thousand times, is not as good as living it once.” He realizes and respects that she’ll die for her country, but would prefer she simply give in so he wouldn’t have to hurt her. He also has an honor code to him, when Mike doesn’t succumb to his attempts to psych him out, he expresses a sense of admiration for him. He likes that he admits his mistake and doesn’t try to deny it, and seems kind of pleased when he just tells him to shut up after using Mike’s wife as a threat.

These two bad guys are very different, and I love that. Ultimately however, I’m gonna give the edge to Rick. I adore James, especially for his voice work as Hades and Owlman in Disney’s Hercules and DC Animation’s Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths respectively, but ultimately he’s just a planner. While Rick Yune is a doer, he physically harms people with his hands and tries to make them submit to him. And that’s fucking awesome!

Best Supporting Cast

And now we return to the realm of easy choices. In White House Down, the only real characters we have are Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Carol Finnerty, a secret service agent who was mentored by James Woods and had a fling with Channing Tatum in college. Richard Jenkins as the Speak of the House who secretly planned the attack with James Woods. Joey King as Tatum’s daughter. And Nicholas Wright as a White House Tour Guide.

Olympus Has Fallen has Morgan Freeman also as the Speaker of the house, who isn’t a corrupt asshole in this movie. Angela Basset as the director of secret service. Dylan McDermot as a former secret service agent who’s working with Kang; oh, so he’s the corrupted asshole in this movie, I got it. Melissa Leo as the Secretary of Defense who is probably the most hardcore woman in an action flick I’ve ever seen. A kid named Finley Jacobson who plays the President’s son Carter, he’s a good boy who doesn’t detract from the plot that he’s not old enough to see play on screen, haha.

So you have underdeveloped characters parading as these incredibly well written people in White House Down. And surprisingly well handled characters in Olympus Has Fallen. Olympus wins this one.

And now we come to the finale, Who Told The Story Best

In case it’s not clear by now, I already formed my opinion. I’ll admit, if you take out the parts with a child actress, replaced Channing Tatum with a more credible lead, and replaced Roland Emmerich with a Paul Greengrass, we could’ve had a really great movie here! But as it stands, Olympus Has Fallen is SUCH an entertaining movie. Yeah, it’s kinda dumb, but what’s life without a few stupid yet awesome action movies? And here’s the kicker, Olympus doesn’t try to pretend to be intelligent like White House Down does. It knows it’s just exciting popcorn entertainment to wet your pallet until the really big action movies coming out later in the year show up. Of White House Down, all I can say for a positive is this

Die Hard In The White House 2013 Review Miniseries - White House Down (June 2013)

Written In January 2014

 Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

John Cale (Channing Tatum) is a United States Capitol Police officer assigned to Speaker of the House of Representatives Eli Raphelson (Richard Jenkins) after Cale saved Raphelson’s nephew’s life during a tour in Afghanistan. Cale is struggling to develop a better relationship with his daughter Emily (Joey King), who has a strong enthusiasm for politics. He hopes to impress her by getting a job with the Secret Service, but the interview is conducted by Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a former college acquaintance of his who believes that he is unqualified. After lying to Emily about the outcome of the interview, she and Cale join a tour of the White House. At the same time, U.S. President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) proposes a controversial peace treaty between allied countries to remove military forces from the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a man disguised as a janitor detonates a bomb at the center of the United States Capitol, causing the collapse of the building's dome. Raphelson - who was in the Capitol but is uninjured - and Finnerty are taken to a secure command center underneath the Pentagon while Vice President Alvin Hammond (Michael Murphy) is taken aboard Air Force One. The White House is put on lockdown separating Cale from Emily (who had left the tour group to use the restroom). Meanwhile, mercenaries led by Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke) start killing off most of the Secret Service and take the tour group hostage, but Cale manages to take a gun from a mercenary named Carl Killick (Kevin Rankin) and escapes to go and find his daughter. Meanwhile, retiring Head of the Presidential Detail Martin Walker (James Woods) escorts President Sawyer and his detail to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Once Sawyer gains access, Walker kills everyone else in Sawyer’s detail, revealing himself to be the leader of the attack; he wants revenge for his son who was killed during a botched black ops mission. Cale, who fails to find Emily, kills a mercenary and uses his radio to locate and rescue the President.

Walker and Stenz bring in Skip Tyler (Jimmi Simpson) to hack into the defense system, but they still require Sawyer to activate the nuclear football. Emily, while hiding, records a video of the mercenaries and uploads it to YouTube before eventually being captured by Killick. Walker demands $400 million from the Federal Reserve as ransom for the hostages. Cale and Sawyer manage to contact the Pentagon, and Finnerty tells Cale to get Sawyer out through a series of secret underground tunnels. Finnerty then uses Emily’s video to discover the mercenaries’ identities, realizing that they used to work for various government agencies and radical political groups. They are informed that Stenz, a former Special Forces operative, was disavowed and burned on mission, leading to his capture by the Taliban. They also discover that Walker has terminal cancer, suggesting his involvement to be a suicide mission and not for ransom. Cale and Sawyer find the tunnel gate rigged with an explosive and are forced to escape in apresidential limousine. After a car chase with Stenz on the White House lawn, Cale and Sawyer are flipped into the White House pool after Cale gets distracted by the sight of Killick holding Emily at gunpoint. A gunfight erupts which results in an explosion that leaves Sawyer and Cale presumed dead. Aboard Air Force One, Hammond is sworn in as President.

When Cale and Sawyer reveal they are still alive, they learn Hammond has approved an aerial incursion by Delta Force to take back the White House. Knowing the mercenaries have Javelin surface-to-air missiles, Cale tries but fails to stop the mercenaries from shooting down the helicopters. Cale gets into a fight with Stenz and ends up dropping his White House passes for himself and Emily while escaping. Having already learned of Emily from the video, Stenz, knowing that she is Cale’s daughter, takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Tyler finishes the upload to NORAD and launches a missile at Air Force One, killing everyone on board. Raphelson is then sworn in as President and, in a last ditch effort to end the crisis, orders an air strike on the White House.

Walker tells Cale over the White House intercom to surrender Sawyer or he will shoot Emily. Sawyer ultimately surrenders himself to save Emily, knowing Cale could still save them both if he was free. Holding the pair in the Oval Office, Walker reveals to Sawyer that his motive for the attack was to convey a message of American power. Because of Sawyer’s dislike of military force, as well as backing out of the mission that killed his son, Walker had grown to believe Sawyer was too weak to be President; by launching a nuclear attack on Iran, Walker had hoped to regain international respect for America and avenge his own personal loss. He asks for Sawyer to activate the nuclear football, but Sawyer refuses. When Walker threatens to shoot Emily again, the alarms and sprinklers are activated by Cale setting fire to the Lincoln Bedroom. In the chaos, Tyler tries to escape but encounters the tunnel gate bomb. When he tries to deactivate it, it detonates instead, killing him. Killick finds Cale and tries to kill him, but is ambushed by Donnie Smith, the White House tour guide (Nicolas Wright), who bludgeons Killick to death with a clock. After freeing the hostages and entrusting Donnie to get them out safely, Cale battles Stenz and ultimately kills him with a grenade belt. Using the explosion to catch him off guard, Sawyer attacks a distracted Walker, but Walker gains the upper hand and forces Sawyer to activate the football before apparently shooting him dead. Using updated launch codes from an anonymous source, Walker targets various cities in Iran, but before he can initiate the launch, Cale smashes through the wall of the Oval Office with a presidential SUV, and kills Walker with the SUV's minigun. Cale warns Emily of the air strike, and she takes a presidential flag and waves it on the front lawn, prompting the pilots to call off the attack. Meanwhile, Sawyer reveals himself to be alive since the bullet that hit him hit a pocket watch his wife (Garcelle Beauvais) had given him. Finnerty calls them to reveal that the mercenaries were not hired by Walker, and that there is another person behind the attack. Cale realizes who it is and asks Sawyer for his help in exposing the person.

Later, Finnerty arrives at the White House with Raphelson. When Cale tells them Sawyer was killed, Raphelson then orders troops to be placed back into the Middle East, which would go against Sawyer’s peace treaty. Cale then reveals Raphelson had conspired with Walker to orchestrate the attack because of Raphelson’s opposition to Sawyer’s treaty and then proves it by having Finnerty call the call-back number on Walker’s pager, which was the source of the updated launch codes. Sawyer arrives and has Raphelson taken into custody, treating his taking of the Presidency as a coup d'état. Sawyer then officially offers Cale a job in the Secret Service and takes him and Emily on an aerial tour of Washington, D.C. on his way to the hospital. Realizing an increased need for peace due to the day’s events, Israel, Russia, the European Union, Canada, China, Iran and other Middle Eastern and Asian countries agree to sign Sawyer’s peace treaty.

So the first thing I want to address, Jamie Foxx is playing Barack Obama in all but name. I mean it, he is literally an analogue to Obama!

1. Obama: closet smoker. Sawyer: keeps a crap ton of packs of nicorette gum in his night stand.
2. Obama: has a beloved wife and two daughters. Sawyer: has a beloved wife and daughter.
3. Obama: known for being witty on talk shows and other public appearances. Sawyer: consistently has some sort of wisecrack throughout the movie.

All you really need was Foxx trying to do his Obama impersonation whenever he spoke. Anywho, onto the pros and cons.

PROS:

• The effects are pretty great.
• Jamie Foxx’s president is aware that as a leader the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a good performance in this movie.
• James Woods plays a bad guy in this movie.
• There’s a child actress in the movie who gives a decent performance, I hope she does good in the future.
• Video of the terrorist is released through YouTube, which I think is a nice note of the fact that information like this is becoming increasingly easier to find out about through the internet.

CONS:

• Channing Tatum.
• Terrible villains!
• The villains are without believable motives.
• Jamie Foxx’s president is too perfect!
• The movie does a very poor job of juggling political commentary and action.
• The action is rather forgettable.
• While I do think the actress did well in the film, I don’t see the point of Channing Tatum’s Daughter’s subplot. It’s rather plot derailing.
• There’s a scene where James Woods’ wife in the film is allowed to speak with him through a radio connection, when he tells her why he is doing these terrible things, she encourages him! Telling him to make the government pay for what they did to their son. This is COMPLETELY unbelievable.
• While James Woods is somewhat interesting, his cronies are just thugs for hire who have nothing to really compel you to understand why they’re doing.
• The Speaker of The House being a villain is also really unneeded, and again, unbelievable.
• All of the nations of the world suddenly calling for World Peace after the attack on the white house is the most unbelievable thing in the movie and just plain stupid.

Now before I give my actual ranking on the film, let me talk to you for a second about… Star Trek! I know a lot of folks had issues with the latest film, Star Trek Into Darkness, but I really dug it. And one moment that I really appreciated about the movie was when Alice Eve’s Carol Marcus addresses her father, Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller), while aboard the Enterprise. She tells him that while she gets the why behind him trying to militarize Starfleet and being about to attack the ship with his own (The USS Vengeance), she tells him that this is not the way and that it is not right, and notes that she knows that he won’t destroy the ship with her aboard it. Weller nonchalantly says that he won’t have to, and beams her aboard his ship. Once aboard, Carol walks strait up to the Admiral in his captain’s chair and slaps him across the face, telling him that she is ashamed to be his daughter.

Say what you want about JJ, but he is clearly smarter than Roland Emmerich. Because any person stupid enough to tell their husband to go ahead and destroys millions of lives to avenge the life of their own son should not be put on screen for any amount of time. I won’t say that moment ruined the movie for me, but it lost a lot of points for me.

BUT, speaking of Star Trek, who here is familiar with the phrase most famous with Star Trek II?

Okay, that one’s pretty awesome too, but I was referring to a different phrase. Specifically one from Spock at the end of the movie.

YES! That’s it! That’s the one!

Now let me tell you what this quote has to do with this stupid movie. There’s a scene where Jamie Foxx’s President Sawyer is being told to give the terrorists his launch code or else they will kill Channing Tatum’s daughter. Foxx looks the little girl in the eyes, she has a gun to her head and is scared beyond belief, and you know exactly why. And Foxx tells her, “If I give them this code, he’s going to kill millions of people. I can’t let that happen. Do you understand?” She nods and says that she does, clearly not wanting to die, but trying to prepare herself for it.

“The needs of the many… Outweigh the needs of the few… Or the one.” - Spock.

This scene COMPLETELY makes up for the scene I just complained about it. It demonstrates a level of maturity that is otherwise absent from this movie, that is sorely missing throughout the rest of the film.

Now please don’t misunderstand me, I do NOT advocate child murder. It’s a horrible thing that goes beyond being just plain criminal. Any person who’s murdered someone who has not even begun life deserves an ETERNITY in the fieriest depths of hell. Even if you don’t believe in things like heaven and hell, if you’re a moral person at all, you have to believe there is an equally special place for child murderers as there is for people who commit crimes like rape.

But what’s right here? Allowing for millions of people, whether newborn, college grad or looking to retire soon, to die for the sake of this one little girl living? Or letting her die, so that so many others like her can live to see old age?

But unfortunately, if I were to give this movie rating, which I will, I’d have to give a 5 out of 10.