Angel Has Fallen (Dir Ric Roman Waugh, 2h 1m)

The third of the Fallen series, in which Gerard Butler plays bruising Secret Service agent, Mike Banning, protecting Morgan Freeman's Obama-ish President, Allan Trumbull (replacing Aaron Eckhart's previous president), is business as usual, in so far that it is once again an action movie where a shouty former military man tries to stop ne'erdowells from killing the president, during which Butler uses a lot of his "certain set of skills" to stop them. Where it neatly twists the tried and tested formula, however, is with Banning, The Fugitive-style, going on the run after having been framed for the attempted murder of the murder and the death of his entire team, which adds a taut, thriller-ish tone, but, one is left, in Angel Has Fallen, with a film that is otherwises laughably baggy, and tonally dissonant.

What exactly is the Fallen series trying to do? Compared to many action movies these days, which either go for gritty realism, or, as in the case of the two series that now drive action movies, Mission: Impossible and The Fast and the Furious, enjoyably outlandishly plots, with visually impressive action scenes  and studded with memorable characters, the Fallen series has always been a fairly uneven beast, with thuddingly insensitive terrorist attacks in its second, London-set outing, a humourless, cookie-cutter cast, and a visual style that feels like being shaken repeatedly whilst Gerard Butler flails his fists at you. The fact that Olympus Has Fallen wasn't even the best film about terrorists attacking the White House, which goes to the tongue-in-cheek ridiculous White House Down, that at least revels in its ridiculousness, tells you everything about this film.

Angel has Fallen at least starts by making a fist of it-there's an enjoyable tautness as the conspiracy against Banning by dark and violent forces begins to gather shape, leading to a genuinely shocking scene in which his colleagues are massacred by drones, and he and the President only escape with their lives. As Banning awakes, he is cuffed, and, in what are certainly Butler's best scenes, his shock and anger at the web he finds himself in is palpable, only for the film to merrily veer off into the ridiculous, as Banning is rescued by the same forces that aim to kill him, only to dispatch them, later steal a truck, crash this after a ponderous chase, and go off grid.

The tone of Angel is less mood whiplash as it is a mood pendulum, swinging back and forth, around and around-will the next scene be deadpan humour as he faces off against bounty-hunting yokels? A look into Mike's past? Nick Nolte giving the best performance of this film as a scenery chewing off-grid Vietnam vet survivalist? A sombre scene between an estranged father and son as both are forced to agree that war never changes, and that violence has broken them in a way? Nick Nolte merrily blowing up adversaries with charges that fling bodies through shot? It's confusing at best, headache inducing at worst.

And this indeed seems to, in short, summarise the film itself. It's a confused mess in terms of its cinematography, its tone, in everything this film does. There are moments that are beautifully shot-when our hero bests the villain, the film swaps to an arthouse immediately overhead view, used earlier in a scene where the villain hunts down Trumbull through a number of rooms, that almost calls to mind retro shooters and, of course, the ultraviolent Hotline Miami-is this a critique of the gamification of violence? Is it just an interesting shot? Indeed, the film is full of visually arresting shots, but uses  The film is so muddled in its message that if it meant anything, it never quite gets it out.

Elsewhere, the violence is muddled, the camerawork, the editing, the pure visual confusion of the scene almost disorientating-were this better linked to Mike's worsening health, a visual translation of his headaches, his pain, his confusion at the place he finds himself, it would be more appropriate, rather than emblematic of the "building the scene in the edit" mentality that now practically rules action cinema. In places, to be blunt, this is not a pleasant film to watch at points-not because of the violence or the theme-but because it is simply a badly edited, badly shot film.

Even in its best asset, Nick Nolte's veteran, who riles against war, and what it did to him, the film utilises the one actor actually trying to put his all into his performance far too little-he's not only the actor clearly having fun with his performance, but the only one who seems to be trying to have a point to his character, trying to reconnect with the gruff nonentity that is Mike Banning, trying to move his son off the path he himself ended up on, and make up for the time absent from his son's life. Aside from the scene in which father and son team up to defeat a veritable army of assailants, he's used too little.

And this is frankly the film in a nutshell-a messy, unpleasant, disorientatingly, tonally confused film with a leading man with the presence of a cardboard cutout in a story that isn't sure whether to be grounded or outlandish, that doesn't even use its one asset to its advantage. It is a grey, dull, boring slog of a film. In short: Angel Is Boring

Rating: Avoid