There’s a visceral forcefulness to his staging that does much to enliven what are rather standard-issue conflicts, highlighted by a prolonged single-take (seemingly enhanced by CG trickery) down a city street in which his camera maneuvers in and out of gunfire, twirling around to provide 360-degree views of the carnage.
Taking over for “Olympus” helmer Antoine Fuqua, director Babak Najafi competently stages his shootouts and hand-to-hand combat, the former chockablock with instances of Banning putting bullets in his opponents’ foreheads, and the latter often concluding with Banning’s knife being repeatedly being plunged into nameless foes’ necks and torsos.
Perhaps the movie’s politics - which range from tone deaf to irredeemable - would be more of an issue if it weren’t so inept. Instead, Swedish director Babak Najafi (“Easy Money: Hard To Kill”) has thrown together one of the worst action movies in recent memory, its signal achievement being a firefight that’s presented in a single take, but which still manages to be incomprehensible. “Go back to Fuckheadistan,” growls Neanderthal Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) as he knifes a faceless goon about halfway through the grab bag of dog-whistles and dog-shit filmmaking that is “London Has Fallen.” One of the cheapest looking $100 million movies ever made, this sequel to the 2013 sort-of-hit “Olympus Has Fallen” ditches the original’s “Die Hard in the White House” premise in favor of sub-“Death Wish 3” sadism and “Red Dawn”-esque survivalism, but without the notes of camp or jingoist pulp that could make either watchable. It’s all so overly macho that it plays like a camp pleasure-cruise. “London Has Fallen” is laced with as many clichés as the original: the President mainly speaks in heartfelt speeches about looking out for the citizens of the United States and Butler, more a likeable lad-on-tour than a stern secret agent, has lines that span from “Nothing’s wrong, it bugs the hell out of me” to “Make those fuckers pay!” Still, if you embrace the movie’s “GI Joe”-style fun swagger, there’s novelty value in seeing London through the lens of a global action movie. Is it insensitive to make a film about a city-wide terrorist attack at a time when people are genuinely scared of commuting to work? In the case of “London Has Fallen,” not really: mainly because this sequel to “Olympus Has Fallen” is so joyously ridiculous.