Macron and Hidalgo can breathe, Canal+ waited until the end of the Olympic Games before sending its terrorists to attack the French capital. At the end of September, the sports truce is over and the encrypted channel can draw its Paris Has Fallen, action series inspired by the American saga ” Has Fallen » with Gerard Butler.
A little flashback. In 2013, Gege must save the President of the United States in The Fall of the White House. In 2016, Gege must save the President of the United States in The Fall of London. In 2019, Gege must save another President of the United States in The Fall of the President. Three films where the subtlety and intelligence of the scenario had taken leave leaving us with what the people really wanted: Gerard Butler killing bad guys without taking the time to eat. Because that was his job!
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And even if Gege stays around Paris Has Fallen thanks to his G-Base, a production company that co-produces the series alongside StudioCanal, Urban Myth Films and Millennium Media, no chance (unless) of seeing him land on screen, leaving it to others to kill the bad guy without taking the time to have a bite to eat.
After the French Minister of Defense is taken hostage and rescued at a party at the British Embassy, his bodyguard Vincent Taleb (Tewfik Jallab) must team up with MI6 agent Zara Taylor (Ritu Arya) to foil a much larger plan hatched by one Jacob (played by Sean Harris). A threat hanging over all of Paris and which targets the highest echelons of the State.
Two things strike us immediately once Paris Has Fallen started. First, we feel it all the quality of a series produced by Canal. Secondly, Tewfik Jallab (Oussekine) is the cross between Jeremy Ferrari and Zachary Levi and we only see that.
Paris Has Fallen, But Not Without a Fight
More seriously, it’s hard to say that Paris Has Fallen has not benefited from the same care as the other series of the group. If Canal has already proven to us that it knows how to do it concerning political intrigues (Black Baron) or espionage (The Bureau of Legends), the know-how is exported to the field of action without problem thanks to the writing of Howard Overman (Misfits) and the realization of Oded Ruskin (False Flag). Exchanges of gunfire, punches or blows in the back, the sequences are convincing and the twists and turns numerous enough to keep us in suspense for eight episodes.
Sean Harris is doing Sean Harris, namely playing the same ambiguous criminal as in the saga Mission : Impossibleand the duo Jallab / Ritu Arya (Umbrella Academy) works well. The transposition of the film to the series of the license allows the latter to take the time to further develop its characters, even if it sometimes gets lost along the way, notably on a romance around President Emmanuelle Bercot that the whole world could have done without.
The Fall of an Idea
However, it is also this change of medium that makes Paris Has Fallen a failure. Why the saga The Fall has had such success with its more than 500 million dollars at the box office? We say it above, the script has never been the strength of the film object. No, we watched Olympus Has Fallen and its sequels because the action was fast-paced and everything was exploding. A regressive action blockbuster that wanted to mix Die Hard with some 24H Chrono doing half as well, but with generosity for the adrenaline. And it held because each film did not pretend to maintain itself for three hours with this mentality of brute. We came, we took our shot, and thank you goodbye.
Except that with eight episodes of almost an hour, Paris Has Fallen must have something else to tell than just the piling up of terrorist corpses. A logical, understandable approach which, despite a scenario that does not go off the beaten track, can be watched without displeasure. So what is the problem? Simply its title. Because by attaching the name ” Has Fallen “, the show creates a legacy and, inevitably, expectations. Of course, the audience who would never have witnessed Butler’s exploits would not see anything, but for any connoisseur, there is no need to wait until the end of the first episode to see the problem: the adrenaline shot is gone. Nor generosity.
The series is well-paced, well-paced, but it cannot go at a hundred miles an hour like its cinematic counterpart and, therefore, it loses the very essence of ” Has Fallen “. She seeks to intellectualize a franchise that has never been its strength or its goal. Paris Has Fallen seems not to have understood what it is adapting and, by ultimately settling for being just an action series with a conspiracy in the background, also loses what could have made its identity. It remains a solid production, which is a pleasure to watchbut which could have been called ” Paris : Infinity War ” without finding the slightest difference. We are missing only one Gerard Butler, and everything is depopulated.
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