White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen are both worthy action fantasies that have their roots buried deep in the spirit of the grand-daddy of the genre, Die Hard; John McClain Goes to Washington as it were.
Having said that, keep in mind the word fantasy. There were enough eye-rolling bad security and military maneuvers and logic gaps to keep those who hate this kind of movie talking about how unfeasible everything is, or counting how many times the hero would, in a real situation, be dead. But I see it as facilitating the execution of the insurgents to get to the meat of the story. They're in. Now what?
Having seen both these movies on successive nights, I can tell you that White House Down, in my opinion, has the more believable infiltration scenario. It is still filled with plot holes large enough to fly a C17 through, but it was still almost credible all the way to the next to final scene if you turn the logic portion of your brain off. The final scene in WHD, though, is completely unbelievable. Having been near three presidential details in my life, the latest one only a few years ago, there is no way anything like what is shown at the end of the movie would even come close to happening. I think the line from another fantasy, The West Wing where the head of the secret service detail tells President Bartlett that if he comes along now the the agents may allow his feet to touch the ground from time to time.
In Olympus Has Fallen, the attack scenario ignores so many security features in air space around the city, procedure with rogue aircraft, line of site missile targeting, built into the infrastructure in Washington, like barricades built into the street designed to stop armored vehicles, that will deploy in seconds, among other less dramatic countermeasures.
The demands in Olympus outweighed the need to save the President to anyone with three brain cells in his head. The demands in WHD were much more credible, but in both I lean heavily on Alfred Hitchcock's "McGuffin". It doesn't matter really. It is just the device, the motivation to move the plot. The perfect example of a McGuffin is "the briefcase" in the movie Ronin. What's in the case, why they are getting the case is totally irrelevant. Of course if you haven't seen Ronin, then don't watch either of these movies and watch Ronin instead. It is a much better movie in every way possible. But I digress.
In both movies the military is neutered by the wish to save the President who is taken hostage in both movies. In both movies it works out that the only guy who can save the universe is an ex-special forces marine with career foul-ups and down on their luck and just happen to be in or near the white house when all goes down. In both movies there are reasons why this agent is obi-won kanobi... you know, the only hope.
In both movies there is the "cute kid in peril scenario". In this particular case Olympus deals with this scenario more credibly.
In both movies the brass ignores the agent inside and sends an assault team early on and fail.
And in both movies there are lots of explosions, cool weapons, destruction, mayhem, and overall action.
Both movies are fun action fantasy, but if you are only going to see one, White House Down (which was in production before Olympus) has the better bad guy (until the last scene), the more credible action, the more believable demands, the less "flawless" insurrection, and the least amount of eye-rolling poor depiction of what security is really like in Washington... with the exception that in both movies the city would be locked down in Marshall law by the second hour of the event and not have gigantic crowds only a few blocks away from the White House or in Lafayette Park!
Having said that, keep in mind the word fantasy. There were enough eye-rolling bad security and military maneuvers and logic gaps to keep those who hate this kind of movie talking about how unfeasible everything is, or counting how many times the hero would, in a real situation, be dead. But I see it as facilitating the execution of the insurgents to get to the meat of the story. They're in. Now what?
Having seen both these movies on successive nights, I can tell you that White House Down, in my opinion, has the more believable infiltration scenario. It is still filled with plot holes large enough to fly a C17 through, but it was still almost credible all the way to the next to final scene if you turn the logic portion of your brain off. The final scene in WHD, though, is completely unbelievable. Having been near three presidential details in my life, the latest one only a few years ago, there is no way anything like what is shown at the end of the movie would even come close to happening. I think the line from another fantasy, The West Wing where the head of the secret service detail tells President Bartlett that if he comes along now the the agents may allow his feet to touch the ground from time to time.
In Olympus Has Fallen, the attack scenario ignores so many security features in air space around the city, procedure with rogue aircraft, line of site missile targeting, built into the infrastructure in Washington, like barricades built into the street designed to stop armored vehicles, that will deploy in seconds, among other less dramatic countermeasures.
The demands in Olympus outweighed the need to save the President to anyone with three brain cells in his head. The demands in WHD were much more credible, but in both I lean heavily on Alfred Hitchcock's "McGuffin". It doesn't matter really. It is just the device, the motivation to move the plot. The perfect example of a McGuffin is "the briefcase" in the movie Ronin. What's in the case, why they are getting the case is totally irrelevant. Of course if you haven't seen Ronin, then don't watch either of these movies and watch Ronin instead. It is a much better movie in every way possible. But I digress.
In both movies the military is neutered by the wish to save the President who is taken hostage in both movies. In both movies it works out that the only guy who can save the universe is an ex-special forces marine with career foul-ups and down on their luck and just happen to be in or near the white house when all goes down. In both movies there are reasons why this agent is obi-won kanobi... you know, the only hope.
In both movies there is the "cute kid in peril scenario". In this particular case Olympus deals with this scenario more credibly.
In both movies the brass ignores the agent inside and sends an assault team early on and fail.
And in both movies there are lots of explosions, cool weapons, destruction, mayhem, and overall action.
Both movies are fun action fantasy, but if you are only going to see one, White House Down (which was in production before Olympus) has the better bad guy (until the last scene), the more credible action, the more believable demands, the less "flawless" insurrection, and the least amount of eye-rolling poor depiction of what security is really like in Washington... with the exception that in both movies the city would be locked down in Marshall law by the second hour of the event and not have gigantic crowds only a few blocks away from the White House or in Lafayette Park!
