Angel Has Fallen- Cliche has Fallen... to new lows.

Movie Review- Angel Has Fallen (2019)

The popcorn action thriller of summer is always expected to be a critic flop, but a box office hit. It is easy watching when television and streaming aren't putting up much of a fight. Every year a different action hero takes the helm to slurp up a decent chunk of change from watchers who want big explosions and don't care how they get them. Yet, even going in with this premeditated knowledge, Angel has Fallen seems to be worse than the usual slim pickings. It is run of the mill for a movie like this to get its story from a deck of cards labelled ''action story cliches'', but usually the writers at least shuffle the pack first. An audience member that goes the cinema every other month should not be able to spot how overused these story points are, but the movie has even been caught out by explosion lovers.

The opening ''twist'' was so clear from the get go it weren't worth trying. The bad guys motivations feels like it has been used in every action movie franchise at least twice. Even the inclusion of the dad, a character that was meant to add heart to the movie according to the films press tour, was so obviously contrived from cliche story telling that you needed to restart your heart from dying of boredom. Even the basic plot ''how can one man prove his innocence when even his side is against him'' sounds like it should be said in a cliche over dramatic trailer voice-over. Nearly every summer action thriller hits a couple cliches, that's common knowledge, but to hit every cliche in the book is surely a new low. What hits worse is the fact the movie doesn't even try and put an individual spin on the cliches, it doesn't have an individual selling point at all.

The films only redeeming feature is the fact that the Director occasionally makes some choices. Some shots are filmed in a kind of interesting fashion and occasionally a piece of editing is done to interesting effect. Yes, I am clutching at straws because even the directors boldest choice, to film some shots to resemble a video game, makes the movie feel cliched as every action director is taking that route now. But, at least it was a choice made.

They say 'actions speak louder than words' and this film certainly hopes that the explosions are loud enough to distract you from realising you've heard all these words before.