Angel Has Fallen is the third installment in Mike Banning’s story – a trusted Secret Service Agent that’s saved the President’s life multiple times. At this point, there should be schools and libraries named after him.

The story catches up with Banning (Gerard Butler) sometime after the events of London Has Fallen. He’s up for Secret Service Director under President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) administration. Banning isn’t sure he’s the man for the job because he’s dealing with severe head trauma and an addiction to pain killers. Before Banning can take the job as Director, the President is attacked by a swarm of drones. The entire Secret Service detail is killed except for Banning and President Trumbull.

With the Trumbull unconscious and no other witnesses, Banning is framed for the assassination attempt. Under investigation by FBI Agent Thompson (Jada PInkett Smith), Banning has no choice but to escape, try to clear his name, and protect Trumbull at all cost.

Angel Has Fallen is such a ridiculous action movie. It could easily be named Action Movie Cliché, that title is more accurate. If you’ve ever seen any movie ever, there are a few things that are apparent within the first 10 minutes. 1) When the villain is introduced, he may as well wear a shirt that says Bad Guy on the front. 2) The villainous motivations are so laughably on-the-nose.  It’s also hilarious how much the film stresses Banning’s head trauma only for him to get bounced around like a pinball with zero consequence.

The funniest thing that happens in this movie is how dumb all the smart people are. They make dumb decision after dumb decision. Agent Thompson is supposed to be a good FBI agent and she believes the orgy of evidence that makes Banning look guilty. Seriously? Nobody wants to question evidence that points to a guy who saved the President’s life on multiple occasions? Mike Banning should be an International hero and they treat him with no respect.

Some of the action beats are familiar. We’ve seen better versions of these sequences in other films,. One of the best scenes comes courteous of Mike’s meet up with his father. He may be crazier than Mike and has a surprise for the men hunting his son down.

Through all the explosions and gunpowder, there are a few fun moments and some good jokes.

Angel Has Fallen s over-the-top and makes no efforts to tell an interesting story or make you care about anyone when they aren’t firing a gun. It’s a far cry from the Olympus Has Fallen, the fun action movie that started  this franchise. Olympus felt like an homage to the 80’s action while Angel feels like  the early 90’s action films that were more concerned with explosions  than telling a full story. Three is an audience for films like Angel Has Fallen, it’s not clear exactly who the audience is.

Grade: C