In The Wrap, Brad Fisher, one of the producers of the summer blockbuster film, “White House Down,” was quoted as saying, “"What people really remember in movies are the characters. Spectacle will take you so far, but all the bells and whistles in the world will not really mean anything unless you have a story with characters you care about."
Shocking! You mean they know this and make movies with tissue-thin characters anyway?
Director Roland Emmerich took it one step farther. When he first met with the producers he said, “Guys, it's a very good script. Everything is there. What's missing is the movie has to be about something.”
Of course neither of those features much in the trailer for the film. That consisted mostly of explosions. Based on that, I wasn’t planning to see the movie, especially after seeing “Man of Steel.” It wasn’t terrible, but it was a mistake to see it in 3D from a front row at an IMAX cinema. At times I felt like the Malcolm McDowell character in “A Clockwork Orange.” It reminded me that endless fight sequences, no matter how fast-paced and loud, can be boring.
Still, maybe i’ll check out “White House Down” after all, to see whether the good intentions about characters and some kind of political message made it through. I'm not getting my hopes too high.
