Ok, I had a choice of seeing this movie or “Red Riding Hood” this weekend. And as much as I think Amanda Seyfried is super cute and a big bad werewolf movie could be fun, I went with my guy instincts to go see “Battle: Los Angeles.” And you know what? It’s a fun movie, has lots of great action, but we have seen it before.
I think the easiest way to break it down is to give you the good news and bad news of this film. Let’s start off with the bad, get it out of the way. (WARNING: some SPOILERS AHEAD. Read at your own risk…)
So what is the bad in this film? This movie takes a lot of it’s plot and story from a LOT of already great sci-fi out there past, present, and I am sure in the future. Just to name a few, here we go: Soldiers battling aliens on the ground, check! (Aliens); Big speech to round up support of the troops, Check! (Independence Day); All of the smaller Alien ships all controlled by one big one, take it down they all go down, Check! (Independence Day); The Aliens have long skinny bodies that look like walking bugs, Check! (District 9, Titan AE, any of the Alien movies); Unoriginal motive for the alien attack, Check! (V original TV Series, their wanting to steal Earth’s water); Ship designs copy other alien movies, check! (District 9); Scores of civilians in danger, their own self sacrifice, over drawn battles, and the standard 20 minute character introduction segment at the beginning of the film, Check! (any alien attack movie).
If this movie were to be called “Alien Invasion Cliche’s with Pretty Pictures,” that title would work well too. I was really hoping for some originality somehow, but with so much sci-fi out there, an original concept may be hard to come by these days. Still, this movie does have some redeeming qualities, some gleaming hope that there is some good that makes “Battle:Los Angeles” stand out a little bit at least.
You might be asking yourself then why go see this movie? It was only the #1 movie for it’s opening weekend, right? Well there is a lot of good in the movie too.
First of all, Aaron Eckhart as Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz who is only days from retirement now faces the biggest battle of his life, and not just against the aliens. The soldiers under him don’t trust him very much because of what happened in his last detail, where one of his current soldier’s brother was killed under Nantz’s command. The speech Nantz gives to rally the men behind him at one point makes reference to this incident, and it is powerful, if only because of Eckhart’s amazingly nuanced performance.
I also really liked Michelle Rodriguez as Tech Sgt. Elena Santo, an Air Force Tech who hooks up with Nantz’s group in the battle zone, and has the key intel they need later in the film. Plus her choice at the end of the movie, which I won’t give away, was just cool in my book. She didn’t have to do what she did, but she goes off anyway. (SPOILER ALERT again – she lives at the end here, unlike Avatar!)
The supporting soldier cast, all great actors, and in my mind, completely believable. I bought them as a tight knit unit who had to follow orders from an outsider with whom they questioned his motives. By the end though, you are enthralled by their choice to keep fighting…well, the ones left anyway.
Special effects were just as good, if not better than what “District 9” gave us. The designs of the ships and aliens though, while impressive, looked like someone threw spaghetti on a wall, took a picture, and recolored it to make these designs. Add to that some definite ‘borrowing’ of the designs it seems from movies like “District 9” and “Independence Day” and it makes me wonder how could these be original. And yet they feel fresh in most ways, and the talent in adding to them screen made it impossible for me to tell what was in camera or what was in a digital camera for CGI. Kudos to the special effects guys for pulling this movie off.
Also key to what was right in this movie was that the director here knows how to pull out and let the action scenes really play out so that you can SEE the action, not so close as to not let you know what’s going on. Unlike what Michael Bay or others who go too close to the action too much do, you can tell what the hell is going on when you see this movie. Close-ups felt like they were used when needed, not for every bomb hitting one spot. For what seems to be Director Jonathan Liebesman’s first huge summer film, he did a great job.
So what’s the deal, should you see this film or not? This is definitely a fun popcorn flick, I would say if you can see it in the theater, go for it. I would however maybe wait though till you can catch a matinee maybe to save some bucks though since you have seen this alien attack before. This is definitely worth renting or buying this year for Christmas though I think….
Will you go see it? Let me know 
- TheMatrix8475
“Battle: Los Angeles” Movie Trailer
“Battle: Los Angeles”
Movie Review
Date Watched : 03/12/2011
Directed By:
Jonathan Liebesman
Written By:
Christopher Bertolini
Starring:
Aaron Eckhart as Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz
(seen before in “The Dark Knight”, “Rabbit Hole”, and “Paycheck”)
Michelle Rodriguez as Tech Sgt. Elena Santos
(seen before in “Avatar”, the TV show “Lost”, and “SWAT”)
Bridget Moynahan as Michele
(seen before in the TV Show “Blue Bloods”, “I, Robot”, and “Coyote Ugly”)
My issue was with how advanced these aliens are, their entire Air Force is essentially UAVs no more advanced than ours (they’re just like us–they can’t trust computers not to kill them! But they traveled across the galaxy and need our water). I would think that they’d have some robust, impenetrable AI controlling each ship individually (aside from, of course, mission objectives and patrol areas). But that would be too “Matrix”, wouldn’t it?
Really, aren’t most movies these days derivative or remakes? And with that… why go see them? I enjoyed it because unlike Skyline (I mean… why did they need our brains?!), it didn’t feel completely cliche and derivative even though it might have been. The ships might have looked somewhat like District 9′s, but with all those engines and the sounds of their flight and behavior, they were completely different. The aliens’ arrival was much more dramatic.
I’m still confused as to why so much effort was put into defending Los Angeles of all places. Yeah, it’s coastal and Pendleton and Miramar and Vandenburg are all nearby, but it’s a worthless dive. A scorched earth policy to the San Bernadinos and defending in tactically beneficial terrain makes more sense and what would more likely happen.
Also, Michelle Rodriguez has a very shallow and generally weak acting ability (she always plays a blustery badass and while I like strong women, sometimes there is strength in being vulnerable). In any case, it generally doesn’t add to any movie that she’s in and generally only serves to ruin it because someone decided they need a stereotypical latina badass that doesn’t further plot or anything, but is just there so the affirmative action types don’t get upset. I just don’t like her. Her best role was in Resident Evil… and only because she got capped between the eyes on the train. Her role in this movie could have been filled by a sock puppet. Why didn’t the Marines know the USAF was looking for a CCC just in case their jarheads in the field might see something to report back? And why, if they knew to look for a CCC and were homed in on because of their radio transmissions, did she not figure that out? I thought those sig int types were supposed to be smart and most of ours isn’t done in the field, anyway.