Die Hard vs. Olympus Has Fallen

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It's "Die Hard" in the White House, it's a re-made Air Force One... There are a few instances in which the first time screenwriters are homaging Die Hard, I'm sure, but they didn't adequately learn the lesson that characterization pays off later - this film needed another half hour of setup to reach that Die Hard level. Director Antoine Fuqua's framing is far too tight, which mars an otherwise impressive staging of a rogue North Korean full frontal assault on the White House. The story could have been made more interesting if the motivations of the villain and the traitor were fleshed out and made not just convincing, but integral, and instead of making the President friends with the Secret Service agent, why not make it so that the President is not necessarily an easily admirable man, perhaps not corrupt, but draw lines of political disagreement between him and the agent. If you feel your President is reprehensible, and he's been taken hostage by hostiles, how hard are you willing to try to save the Head of State? What sacrifices are you willing to make?

I actually thought the movie did an adequate (just adequate, though) job of establishing what the main villain's motivations were but, yeah, the rationale for why Dylan McDermott's character turned traitor was just weak. And, to make it worse, he switches back before he dies (For God's sake, make up your mind!) Devoting more time to developing both characters probably would have been a good idea. They should have NOT bothered with the whole storyline of the First Lady getting killed and Gerard Butler's character being banished to the proverbial "desk job." It would have been much more cool if he were just a random Secret Service agent who ends up being the only one not killed in the siege of the White House (the last agent standing, as it were). They also should have nixed the whole Cerberus system nonsense (I was waiting for Dr. Strangelove to roll out and explain what Cerberus was). Basically, I wish they would have made it all a bit less "Hollywood" and went with a realistic "What if this actually happened?" kind of movie. All that said, Olympus Has Fallen is still a better-than-average film. It delivers plenty of action and tension, which are the most important things for a movie of this type. But, at the end of the day, it is still just a Die Hard rip-off, and rip-offs almost never top the movies they're "borrowing" from. Die Hard wins this matchup easily.

Y'know, even though I'm one of three people in the world who doesn't like Die Hard and although Olympus Has Fallen didn't bore me the way Die Hard did, at the end of the day, Die Hard is a MUCH better film and Olympus Has Fallen is a below average Die Hard clone. It's stupid.

This is what A Good Day To Die Hard should have been. F*UCK you Die Hard 5.

Not much needs to be said...