What does it mean for something to ‘has fallen’?
Up till now, one could argue that it happens whenever Gerard Butler, sporting a face full of stubble and a dodgy American accent growled through gritted teeth, finds himself in a “Die Hard”-esque scenario requiring the protection or reclamation of a place or people against anonymous terrorists. But, as with previous attempts to adapt mid-budget EuropaCorp-adjacent actioners to the small screen (“Taken,” “Shooter,” “Nikita”), “Paris Has Fallen” feels incredibly divorced from its big-screen inspirations. Sure, there’s the burly guy in the boxy suit dispatching baddies with John Wick-ian efficiency, and the sniveling baddie with the megalomaniacal plan. But there’s something curious about “Paris,” a show that brushes past Butler’s corn-fed actioner conceit and does something alternatingly innovative and tedious with it.
The eight-episode series, produced in the UK by StudioCanal which airs on Hulu, begins in typical Jerry-Butler fashion: A group of terrorists, masked as a French clowning troupe, hijack a party at the British Embassy in Paris. Their leader, played to reedy perfection by a flame-scarred Sean Harris, kills a host of people and demands to see the French minister. Unlucky for him, he’s been secreted away by his head of security, Vincent (Tewfik Jallab), who helps thwart their plans with the help of an undercover MI6 agent named Zara (Ritu Arya, “Polite Society”). With the smoke cleared and Harris’ baddie in the wind, Vincent and Zara reluctantly join forces to track him down and figure out his true motivations.
Paris Has Fallen (Hulu)
From here, “Paris” spends its first four episodes hewing to a smart, but well-worn and occasionally repetitive, formula: Vincent and Zara track down Harris’ next target, whom we learn is tangentially involved with a botched mission in Afghanistan Harris seems to want to avenge; lots of exposition and rote character moments meant to thinly sketch out our leads; a few moments of true pathos with Harris; then one of many, many action scenes that, while well-staged, can start to blur together after a good long while.
It’s all very workmanlike, which is admirable in its way. Director Oded Ruskin fills the first four episodes with a surfeit of brutal hand-to-hand sequences, many of which have their own unique quirks even as they grow more anonymous the longer you watch. The leads, however, leave a lot to be desired; Jallab’s stone-faced guardian doesn’t give us much to glom onto besides a kind of bland stoicism, while Arya gets the thankless job of carrying much of the film’s charisma. (She’s admittedly good here.)
But it’s Harris who runs away with the thing, the character actor’s reptilian rasp of a voice seemingly tailor-made for these kinds of villain roles. There’s a slight parallel between his character and that of Ed Harris’ in “The Rock“: both military men betrayed by their country, striking back at the military and political operatives who left him and his men to die. Covered in a mixture of bandages and convincing third-degree burn scars, Harris carries his antagonist with the weight of noble purpose, which is just about all you can ask for in these kinds of roles.
Paris Has Fallen (Hulu)
That’s the double-edged sword of making your villain too interesting, though: You don’t necessarily root for the goodies to win. And as Jallab and Arya sludge their way through one interpersonal problem after another (unrequited love, work-life balances affecting relationships), you’re left wondering when you’ll get to at least see someone scissor-kick someone in a cargo plane again. There’s nothing here that’s too staggeringly novel from what’s come before, which isn’t saying much, considering the “Has Fallen” series is about as by-the-numbers an action franchise as you can expect. (Where’s the “White House Down” series? That’s the superior film of that type from that same year.)
While you’re waiting for Paris to fall, there’s a unique danger that you, instead, will merely fall asleep.
First four episodes screened for review. Streaming on Hulu.
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