(Long Island, N.Y.) Battle: Los Angeles starts out with the alien invasion that makes up its plotline already in full swing. Then, after about a minute, it jumps back 24 hours to before the action begins. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s to make sure people compare it to last year’s Skyline, yet another movie that introduced its timeline to us in the same way. Also, both films are about E.T.’s come here to kick our tails, but instead of using our brains for batteries, this time they’re doing it with our water. Yes, the aliens in this movie all run on water. Okay.
Oh, since we’re comparing the two movies: Battle: Los Angeles’ ending, while only solid, is still way better than Skyline’s fantastically stupid conclusion. But even a film where they forgot to shoot the last 20 minutes would still have a better ending then Skyline. Take that to the bank.
Battle: Los Angeles has a novel way of introducing its huge cast to you: a rapid-fire series of scenes, one or two characters to a scene, each with their names in subtitles. Yeah, if that sounds confusing, that’s because it is…suffice it to say that you won’t remember a single character’s name throughout the entire movie. But that’s okay, because out of Battle: Los Angeles’ entire acting line-up, the only two people you’ll be able to tell apart from the others are the film’s only two name-brand actors: Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez. That’s how generic everyone is here.
But that doesn’t mean that Battle: Los Angeles is a bad movie, oh no. It’s actually got a lot going for it…namely action. Actually, that’s all it has going for it, as there’s little plot or character development to speak of (except when Eckhart’s character gives an ultra-sappy speech late in the movie…nahh, that doesn’t count). But if a gritty Marines vs. bio-mechanical aliens freak-down is what you crave, Battle: L.A. will satisfy.
It’s late and I’m tired, so I’m not going to go too much into the plot, but here comes what I’m prepared to tell you: meteorites crash into the oceans of the Earth, and soon afterwards cyborg monsters come a-runnin’ onto the beaches of Los Angeles and start plugging everyone in sight. U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is called back into duty right as he was about to retire, ’cause he gets the job done (he also has a rep for getting his men killed, but that’s another story). Nantz gets stuck playing second in command of the Platoon of 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramón Rodríguez), who plays the “Gorman” of this movie (a combat-inexperienced leader who chokes at the moment of truth).
Anyway, the military are planning on bombing L.A. because the alien’s weapon tech is too much to deal with (hopefully their weapons don’t fall into the hands of the Crips or we’re REALLY in trouble), so Nantz and Martinez have to go and rescue some civilians out of the target zone before they’re blown to ash. And this is basically the set-up for everything else that comes: the Marines travel into no-man’s land, fighting alien grunts as they go, in an effort to retrieve a few folks and get them to safety.
While in the combat zone, the Marines run into Air Force Intelligence Technical Sergeant Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez, in a nice departure, plays a frightened, sensitive, helpless…haha, just kidding, she plays a tough chick as always), who has a plan for taking out the aliens…but it’s a plan that might cost Nantz and his Platoon their lives…
From the standpoint of being a pure action movie, Battle: Los Angeles delivers. There’s plenty of carnage, explosions, and gunfire to satisfy even the most action-hungry movie fan out there. Alas, here and there director Jonathan Liebesman decided to slow the pace and have people come clean about their past, have heart-to-heart conversations, and wax poetic about being great soldiers and other lame scenes that directors with no dramatic talent should never try. It just kills the pace, but in this case, never enough to ruin the movie; it always manages to get back up to speed.
Also, while the combat is well done, I would have preferred seeing the fighting on a wider scale. In recent alien invasion movies, the action always centers on a small group of people trying to survive or accomplish their mission or whatever. I want to see a convoy of tanks taking on the cyborg aliens and their hover/attack thingy…but we never really get that. But what we do get is certainly respectable, if narrow in scope.
Visually, this flick’s a beauty. The design of both the alien warriors and their various ships and weapons are pretty cool…or, rather, they would be if I could see them; yes, the intended “Black Hawk Down” visual style the director was going for has also brought with it the infamous “shaky cam.” In other words, we’re talking hand-held camera work so all over the place that you can barely see what’s happening or any real detail on the possibly neat-looking bad guys. You know, I have a camcorder, and I certainly have no problems holding it still when filming something…the fact that people are going out of their way to swing their $100,000 cameras around in their best attempt to blind me is just totally lame.
Oh, there’s this funny scene where the Marines have captured an injured alien and stab it 87 times in various places, trying to figure out its weak point. On the last stab it finally dies, and Eckhart’s character starts celebrating like he discovered the blueprints to the Death Star or something. Hey, maybe it just died ’cause you stabbed it 87 times, huh?
As I said earlier, all the characters just kind of blur and blend into one another, and when one of them gets killed, you don’t ever really even notice or care. However, talented veteran actor Aaron Eckhart (ol’ Harvey Two-Face himself) takes command of the screen with a very effective performance of a burnt-out Marine with a troubled past who, while on the verge of retirement, is thrust back into the thick of things when Earth is threatened. Michelle Rodriguez is Michelle Rodriguez playing Michelle Rodriguez: a bad-ass chick with an attitude. She’s never played anything else, nor will she ever at this point. No one would ever buy her as a weepy damsel in distress, that’s for sure…being typecast tends to do that to your career. Still, if you need a hard-as-nails gal in your movie, Rodriguez should be your go-to actress, hands-down.
Battle: Los Angeles is a very solid, entertaining, yet somewhat generic alien invasion movie. Certainly worth seeing for sci-fi/action junkies.
