‘Battle: Los Angeles’ is a film nostalgic of the war and action movies of the 90s. Oh, wait, were you looking for a solid sci-fi plot with great deep thinking and innovative writing? Sorry, this just isn’t the movie for you. Despite the claim that this is a sci-fi, adventure and thriller flick, it’s just not true. This movie belongs to its own sub-class of film, one that I like to call the ‘Patriotic Action movie’ (‘PatAct’ for short).
So is this ‘PatAct’ any good? To put it simply: yes it’s good, but only if you like explosions, yelling, shooting, and your country. Basically, that is just about every male between the ages of 16 and 40, and do they ever cater to that audience. Personally, I like it, but mostly that’s because I’m a gun nut and a big fan of the military. If you follow the tactical crowd, you’ll really like this movie.
Here come the spoilers. My recommendation is to go see this movie with the guys and go have fun at the local watering hole you prefer. Don’t worry, you wont forget much. Whatever you do, however, don’t make it a date movie with your girlfriend unless you have an awesome girlfriend with a shrapnel fetish.
I really hate how this movie opens up. The audience is abruptly tossed into a maelstrom of action and shaky camera work. It almost killed my hopes for this flick. Shaky cameras are the bane of my existence; though if used tactfully, I don’t have a problem with it. This movie uses the trick a bit too much, but not to where it’s intolerable. Anyway, the action of the first few scenes is suddenly slammed to a halt, probably because Jonathan Liebesman remembered that he needs to put a story in here to make the special effects matter. The major gripe is that you’re getting pumped up for the action just in time for it to jump back to 24 hours prior.
The characters are simple. The main character is the classic sergeant played by Aaron Eckhart, who is getting old and wants to retire. Of course, being the good protagonist that he is, he sticks around to keep the aliens from killing everyone.
How nice of him.
The story here is vapid at best: we’re given back story on a few other characters, but they don’t really serve a purpose other than cannon fodder. Fortunately it’s not such a bad thing because it is done really well, and you do feel for each marine that gets taken down. Any recent movie that can generate an emotional response from me gets a really good bump in my book. Particularly when measured in terms of patriotism and sadness without using bad or overused plot devices (I hate little kids in my war movie).
So what about our enemy? What about the aliens? What are their motives? Well, they like to shoot people. Oh, and apparently they like our water.
Go figure.
The movie's story is simple. The marines are sent into Santa Barbara to go to a police station and rescue civilians that are pinned down, for once by something besides dreadlocked street musicians. Another thing that really bugged me at this point was that they were walking down the street in such a tight friggin’ formation. I know I'm nitpicking here, but Jesus. No Marine would be caught dead in a formation that might resemble bowling pins.
Actually, they probably would die because of it.
After a nice fire-fight and losing a few good men, they get to their destination and rescue the remaining handful of survivors. It then becomes a race to get the ‘civies’ out of Santa Barbra before bombers flatten the area (see ‘The Rock’ or any other friggin’ Nicolas Cage movie). This is the end of the spoilers. I feel like if I tell you, I will ruin some of its awesomeness. So please, pretty please, go see the movie.
In summary, if ‘Aliens’ hooked up with ‘Black Hawk Down,’ ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ would be their kid.
Does this movie hold up to snuff? Yeah, I think it’s a good popcorn flick. If you want a deep complex ‘Star Trek’ style story, then this isn’t for you. Just wait for the next sci-fi movie to come around. As I said before, however, action, explosions, and patriotism are what you crave, then go and see ‘Battle Los Angeles.’
-by Josh Sanchez
