I just picked up Olympus Has Fallen from the Library today. Been waiting patiently for a long time to get my copy. I just wished this was better than what I had built up in my head prior to seeing this. This 'Die Hard in the White House' plot is average at best. You can see how influential the original Die Hard was and is from a lot of the little things that you can pinpoint from the series itself and that is where it fails for me. The plot of attacking the White House is an interesting way to go, but it's not original. Both Olympus and White House Down were already late to the game in that department as 24 did it first and it was by far more thrilling than Olympus. I have yet to see WHD, so I can't comment on that specifically.

As for Olympus, I thought that the First Act was very weak. I just don't buy it for one second that POTUS would banish his friend and Secret Service Agent for following protocol, even if the First Lady met her demise because of it. Best part of the movie of course is the attack on the White House itself as wave after wave of Koreans storm the gates and overtake the house. Once the dust settles, it goes into 'John McClane' mode as Mike Banning Gerard Butler does his best to save the President (Aaron Eckhart). The entire 2nd Act is just filler until the confrontation between Mike and the Big Bad Villain. Unfortunately, it just doesn't deliver at all. The other thing I found very annoying was the horrible Special FX that kept popping up. I'm wondering if the shoddy work had a lot to do with the rush job of trying to beat WHD into the theaters. Not sure the FX would have mattered anyway because the story goes into a waiting game till the 3rd Act arrives and when it does....it's over in a blink of an eye.

The movie isn't horrible. It's just average. It still worth a Rent as it does provide some entertaining moments. Just don't go into this expecting anything on the same level of Die Hard, which had characters that you absolutely want to spend 2 hours watching on screen. I doubt I will ever watch this movie again. Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser and Ashley Judd co-star.