London Has Fallen

London Has Fallen is the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen. When the British Prime Minster dies unexpectedly, Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Butler) knows it is his duty to prepare, with Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Bassett), for them to accompany U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Eckhart) to the state funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. With every powerful world leader set to attend, the funeral should be the most protected event on Earth. Yet within moments of arriving, heads of government are assassinated and London landmarks are attacked. Asher, Banning, and Jacobs are ambushed and retreat amidst a hail of gunfire and explosives. The devastated British capital goes into lockdown. Banning will stop at nothing to secure Asher’s safe return home. Back at the White House, Vice President Allan Trumbull (Freeman) races against time, brainstorming with top advisors in the Situation Room to get those trapped in London a lifeline of support and a way out. Outnumbered and outgunned, Banning reaches out for help to an English MI6 agent (Riley), who rightly trusts no one. Failure is not an option as they attempt to stop the criminals from carrying out the final phase of their revenge plan. (Gary Reber)

Special features include a making-of featurette (HD 15:16) and the featurette Guns, Knives & Explosives (HD 07:42) and an UltraViolet digital copy.

The 2.38:1 1080p AVC picture exhibits essentially two stylizations. The first half of the picture is the massive attack on the government dignitaries attending a funeral in the center of London. This is the brighter part and exhibits a natural color palette with generally excellent detail. Fleshtones, though, at times appear a bit processed and unnatural. Resolution is revealing of sharply defined overheads of London and building textures. Finer detail is revealing throughout, which enhances the realism of the location and production design. The second half is much darker in character and less revealing of fine detail, especially in shadows. Still, contrast is generally good, with deep, solid blacks. Noise during the darkest scenes is minimal and unobjectionable. An explosion near the end is a massive fireball of intensity. Overall, this is a visually exciting affair that is engaging throughout and sure to please. (Gary Reber)

The DTS:X/DTS-HD Master Audio™ 7.1-channel soundtrack is a terrific, exciting, and dynamic sonic experience. The sense of holosonic® dimensionality extends to overhead sonics. The bulk of the intense action, gunfire, and explosions are aggressively directionalized and focused in the horizontal plane. The soundtrack is virtually non-stop action, with intense gunfire and explosions, which delivers incredible excitement as the soundfield is filled with constant intense dimensionality. The .1 LFE is actively intense with sub-25 Hz extension that is powerfully engaging. Bullets whiz from channel to channel, as well as missiles, helicopters, and ground vehicles. The dark orchestral score is very dynamic, with a wide and deep soundstage that extends to all of the surround channels. The overhead channels are effectively engaged and at times are a focus. The sonic intensity is chaotic and thrilling. Atmospherics at times are nicely convincing, when not overshadowed by intense action, and enhance the realism of the scene locations. While the sonic intensity occupies all of the channels during the action scenes, dialogue essentially remains intelligible and effectively integrated spatially. This is an intensely exciting soundtrack, with engaging dynamics and aggressive holosonic dimensionality that will not disappoint. (Gary Reber)