One of the better thrillers of recent years was Olympus Has Fallen; its success guaranteed a sequel; that sequel opened on March 4 and I was anxious to see it. London Has Fallen has a different location and a different set of villains, terrorists rather than North Koreans, but the story is rather similar. Can one lone Secret Service agent fight off an army of thugs intent on murdering the President. (That is a rhetorical question, to say the least.) Of course he can, at least if he is Gerard Butler.
As a sequel, this is not quite as good as the first film, but the violence and bloodshed are certainly equal to that story, one major character from the first film will not appear in any sequels. The destruction of landmarks is much worse, but so is the language. Even the President indulges in some bad language event though there is no televised debate in sight.
The film was good therapy for nerves jangled by grading too many papers. Since the President (Aaron Eckhart) has two years left in his second term, there is room for at least one more sequel. The closing scene strengthens the possibility of at least one more fall.
My second film was another Gerard Butler opus, Gods of Egypt. I started reading the Egyptian myths in second grade and have never really stopped; this film should not be considered reliable as a guide to the study of Isis, Osiris, and the other zoomorphs worshipped along the Nile. In fact, Stargate was about as reliable as this film on matters of Egyptian deities.
Butler is not the hero in this film; he is Set, the devil incarnate. This version is not in accord with any source I remember. The film is a bit too long, but the special effects are very good. I recognized Butler and Geoffrey Rush, but no other cast member seemed familiar to me. Most of the cast is European and I am in no hurry to see them in other films.
By the way, in this version, the earth really is flat.