Synopsis (White House Down):
The White House is under siege in this action thriller from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich and The Amazing Spider-Man's writer James Vanderbilt in this Sony Pictures release. Channing Tatum stars. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
Synopsis: (Olympus Has Fallen):
When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger crisis. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs an all-star cast featuring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd and Rick Yune. (c) FilmDistrict
WARNING: SPOILERS ARE IMMINENT BEYOND THIS POINT
Story/Tone:
Both of this movies have almost the same story, the only difference is the opening, the execution and the tone of it. Let's start with WHD (White House Down), the story starts with the lead character (Channing Tatum) who wants to be a part of the Secret Sevice, then he started to invite his daughter to come along with him on his application (because she wants to go to the White House, but what I really think is he also wants to use her as sympathy). After his application, Maggie Gyllenhaal did not accept Tatum and he just felt sad. Afterwards they went on the tour on the same day then after a while all hell broke loose. White House got captured, the president was apprehended but Tatum got saved him and now it was up to Tatum to save the day.
The premise of the movie is good enough and to my opinion it was executed well although some scenes was just ridiculous but my problem with this one is not the story but the tone of it. It was full of comedic gestures and lines which for me did not work well with the movie because it see if you're going to make an action movie that looks serious then make the movie serious, one-liners can be dropped in one scene or two but it is not necessary to make the characters make jokes in almost EVERY. SINGLE. LINE. Again, I have no qualms with the story but I do have a problem with it's tone, it just didn't work. In addition, at some scenes the jokes somehow felt a little forced at times but sometimes it worked too and made me chuckle.
Now, let's OHF (Olympus Has Fallen) this one starts with Aaron Eckhart (US President) being escorted by Gerard Butler (Secret Service Agent) and other Secret Service Agents. While driving, something hit Eckhart's car and the car is now on the edge of the bridge. It's up to the agents (and Butler) to save the president and his wife, unfortunately Butler was only able to save the president. Some years later, Butler's character is now working behind the desk and then the White House got invaded and the president is captured but this time he was not saved as he was in the hands of the antagonist and then of course, all hell broke loose. After a while, Butler got into the White House and it's up to him to save the day.
WHD and OHF is very similar story-wise, the only difference is that how they introduced the characters and the relationship of the characters. On this one, I love the tone that they went for with this film, it was serious and gritty from start to finish and you can tell that the movie is telling how it will be approached if this happened in reality (but seriously it is impossible). Although being serious, it was still able to pop off some one-liners then that's it, it's back to business again. They used the one-liners as some sort of icebreaker in the seriousness of this film and I give them props for that 'cause they handled it pretty well.
I can't say which has the better story as they are basically the same but I will state which movie had the better tone for me and the point goes to Olympus Has Fallen.
Acting:
Everybody involved in both projects delivered a great performance and the chemistry between the two leads in each movie was good because they worked really well with each other. First, let's have Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, they were a perfect match in this movie (WHD) you can almost see it as a buddy-cop movie for the exchange of humor that they had with each other and the jokes at times really works for the characters. I am glad that Tatum is finally picking some diversity in his roles and not only sticking to one genre, as for Foxx he was a good president and his delivery of lines is perfect.
Next is Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart, in this movie (OHF) they are friends and you can really feel this relationship amongst these two characters. Butler was able to show off this agent that was a no nonsense type of guy and if he wants something done he will definitely get it done. On Eckhart's performance, he was an awesome president too as he was able to display the patriotism that a president must have for his country and also for being able to show so much eve though doing so little (if that means anything).
For the villains, I liked both main villains and both of them served great threat to the protagonist but I will say that I find the threat in OHF much more scary rather than WHD because it is not only Washington DC which is at stake but also the whole USA. Performance wise though, James Woods' was far better. Also, both this film had speakers as an acting president which was played by Morgan Freeman in 'Olympus' and Richard Jenkins in WHD, I like both actors but I have to give this one to Freeman as he was much more electrifying in the role. So I give an equal point on this one.
Action:
Both this film delivered in this aspect, it was just nonstop-action, from gunfight to knife fights and then to fist fights. All of them were well choreographed and well shot (I will go on this matter much more later). However, even though I liked watching the action scenes in both films, I have to give this one to 'Olympus', why? It's because it showed more blood which makes it much more realistic and it was also able to show some action that you will not be able to see in a PG-13 film. What I also didn't like in the action of WHD is that some of it became redundant because of all the explosions and all of the falling and jumping of the lead character. That said, I appreciate the action on WHD but 'Olympus' takes the cake on this one.
Cinematography/VFX:
Like I stated from above, both of this film was well shot action-wise but as a whole some of the shots in 'Olympus' felt a little crowded at times and I have to say that most of the shots in WHD is much better. I also have to say that the VFX in WHD is much better than 'Olympus' especially when the White House got blown up, it was much more believable but in 'Olympus' it looks too cartoony an example of this is when the Obelisk is falling down after being destroyed. This aspect goes to White House Down.
Direction:
Roland Emmerich is known for directing disaster porn movies, when it comes to that aspect you can expect this guy to deliver. Having said that though, his direction in this movie is all over the place, the pacing is not right, it tends to be slow then fast then slow, there was no consistency to it. But I do like the way he directed his actors especially Foxx and Tatum as they were able to display great chemistry onscreen.
Moving on, Antoine Fuqua is known for one of the best cop dramas ever which was Training Day and it is personally one of my all time favorites. I liked the fast paced direction he went for with this movie and the balls-out action that he displayed onscreen. I have one minor issue with his direction though, and it was his third act, it became a little rusty and felt a tad dull, it picked up near the end though.
I have to give this one to Fuqua because even though his third act kind of fell apart, he was still able to pick it right up but Emmerich's direction was just, again, all over the place.
Overall:
All in all I think Olympus Has Fallen is a much better film, from the tone of it and the action. 'Olympus Has Fallen' feels like what 'A Good Day to Die Hard' is and it basically felt like if 'Air Force One' and 'Die Hard' had a baby, this will be the result. However I will say that I was entertained by White House Down but at the the end it came off as a cheesy buddy-cop action movie.
Olympus Has Fallen- 3.5/5
White House Down- 2.5/5
Favorite line (White House Down):
President Sawyer: GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY JORDANS!
Favorite lines (Olympus Has Fallen):
Mike Banning: Classified? Really? Well right now, I think I have the proverbial need to fuckin' know.
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Mike Banning: Hashtag? What the fuck is that?
Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs: Shift 3! Shift 3!
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Roma: Olympus has fallen. Olympus has fallen. Olympus has fallen.
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