Olympus Has Fallen/
White House Down
These two movies are so eerily similar that I have decided
to compare and contrast them rather than writing a full review for each. Both are about the White House coming under
attack by terrorists, putting the president in mortal danger from which he must
be rescued by an unlikely hero. I’ll
highlight the pros and trash the cons and eventually come up with the superior film. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from either
of these two, but one of them actually managed to surprise me (in a good way).
OHF WHD
Protagonists
OHF uses a combination of Aaron Eckhard as the president and
Gerard Butler as the hero. WHD uses
Jamie Foxx as the President and Channing Tatum as the hero. I’m a huge fan of both Butler and Tatum, and
both are believable badasses so it all comes down to character and
chemistry. For me, Channing Tatum was
the superior hero because his character’s story and motives werefar more
compelling. He does what he does for the
love of his daughter more so than he does for patriotism. Butler is simply trying to prove he’s still
got it by protecting his president.
Both movies used younger males in the role of president,
which was refreshing. I preferred Foxx
over Eckhart simply for believability.
Eckhart was far too chummy with his secret service buddies, whereas Foxx
seemed focused on leading a nation, he also seemed to have a decent
presidential platform. Eckhart’s
character is an over the top nice guy, not fake, like presidents are supposed
to be. Eckhart seemed more like he was a
secondary hero, while Foxx reacted more like a real president would in that situation. He is afraid and must face and overcome fears
and adversity. Eckhart seems like the
whole taking over the white house thing doesn’t even faze him. Though Eckhart is in it for his family, and
Foxx is in it for his country (the inverse of the heroes) I don’t think it fits
Eckhart’s character to put his child before the nation. It would have been an awesome internal
conflict if Eckhart even seemed to struggle with the notion, but he made his
decision to save his kid first far too easily.
Basically Foxx and Tatum edge out Butler and Eckhart as far
as protagonists go. I made it seem
pretty cut and dry but both tandems did pretty well.
Plot
How did the White Houses come to be under attack? In OHF, an unidentified NORTH KOREAN aircraft
flies straight to the White House, easily evades the White House’s petty
attacks, which include anti-aircraft missiles (failed at their one job) and
fighter jets. After eventually crashing,
the plane causes enough of a distraction so that a Korean tour bus that happen
to be touring Washington can erupt with angry Asians wielding rocket launchers
and assault rifles. They easily storm
the presidential house, overtaking the embarrassingly feeble guards and take
over the house. This would all of course
be impossible without an inside man. A
Korean Terrorist, disguised as a government official, managed to get his people
inside the building under the guise of South Korean government employees. Just like that, snap snap, the White House is
taken, and every single guard working there is dead, except for Butler who
manages to sneak in during the carnage.
He is a disgraced former secret service agent who is eager to prove he’s
still got it, and seizes his chance when the president is in danger. Before he can rescue the President, however,
he must rescue the President’s son who is also in the house. The Koreans goal during this invasion? They want to launch all of the Americans
nukes and destroy everything.
WHD goes in a different direction. Tatum is the Speakers guard, looking to join
the secret service. He brings his
daughter to the White House for a tour.
While there he has his interview, which goes terribly. If only there was some way he could prove he
deserves to guard the president. Luckily
for him, this is the day the white house falls under attack. This scenario involves an inside man, highly
trained ex marines, mercenaries, hackers and racists, all united under the
banner of getting rid of President Foxx.
Tatum, who is on the Presidential tour at the time of the attack, finds
himself separated from his daughter. He
escapes and begins the search but instead of finding his daughter, he manages
to rescue the President himself.
Comparable plots, but I think that WHD is far more
believable. It gets ridiculous at times,
but the ridiculousness is intended. In
WHD, when the White House is taken, it is actually believable. In OHF, you need to suspend all of your
disbelief to follow along the extremely lucky assault on the House. IRL if a Korean gets within a mile of the
White House, Secret Services is alerted.
You cant tell me a bus full of tourists toting heavy bags and throwing
hateful glares towards the White House didn’t arouse any suspicion. In WHD, the secret service and guards simply
look outmatched, and caught by surprise.
In OHF they look utterly incompetent and uneducated on how to use their
defense systems and firearms. WHD has
more action, more on screen chemistry and a far more compelling story. Looks to be a wash so far, only one more
category can possibly save OHF.
Villains *SPOILERS
But it won’t. The
villains in WHD are far and away more interesting and better than any of the
baddies from OHF. Let’s start with the
inside men. Both plots required an
inside man to help the terrorists gain entry to the White House, and in both
movies I was able to identify the rat before they were revealed, simply based
on the actors they got to play them.
OHF WHD
Both of these guys reeked of inside men, and both aroused my
suspicion immediately. It was excellent
casting if that’s what they were going for, but the element of surprise was
non-existent.
In OHF, besides the crooked agent, there is a smattering of
Korean mercenaries, one hot Korean computer hacker and the main baddie, a
remorseless Korean terrorist whose origin nobody is going to care about. Their vision is to destroy 'merica so that
they can go back to war with South Korea.
For the most part, his mercenaries are expendable and faceless.
In WHD, there are many recognisable faces among the
terrorists. After Tatum kills one
mercenary, the leader of the mercenaries (Jason Clarke) loses his shit. He hates losing men more than he hates the
president. This kind of emotion is
completely lacking in OHF (Butler could be killing the same masked mercenary
over and over again and I would never notice the difference). Most of the guys Tatum kills put up a decent
fight, whereas Gerard Butler mows through guys with relative ease. The villains in WHD are from all walks of
life including ex military personnel, white supremacists, an infamous computer
hacker and various Government employees, all united in their hate for the
President. I really liked the character
development of the villains too, making it hard to hate them, even though they
are committing atrocious acts.
The Verdict
White House Down
takes this one easily. It was a far
superior film in almost every aspect. It
was more entertaining, had a better cast, better characters, better plot, more
action, funnier and I didn’t laugh at their terrorists evil plan. Seriously when that lone plane made it
through the White House’s defenses I couldn’t contain my exasperation. Can unidentified aircrafts really just waltz
into America’s most important man’s house untouched, especially after 911? Would never happen. Also, I couldn’t believe Tatum outmatched
Gerard Butler in this type of role, which is typically Gerard’s bread and
Butler (pause for laughter). He did an
amazing job of being a charismatic, likable action hero that gets his ass beat
occasionally, but always bounces back.
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