A group of one-dimensional Marines take on an alien invasion, and the shaky-cam.
- Rated PG-13 for sustained and intense sequences of war violence and destruction, and for language.
- Who's going to like it: First person shooter enthusiasts.
- Who's going to like it: First person shooter enthusiasts.
Aliens are attempting to colonize our planet and the only thing that
stands in their way is a band of fierce Marines partially led by Staff
Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart). Nantz is second in command,
even though he’s the oldest soldier there. He’s been dealing with some
personal issues and wants out of the military. He finally got his wish,
but then was called back into active duty when the alien ships started
falling from the sky.
Battle: Los Angeles is yet another alien attack movie in the long line of alien attack movies. Is there anything that lets it pull away from the herd? Not really. The previews make this look like a CG-fest for the eyes, watching aliens getting mowed down while they in turn flatten our earthling cities with advanced weaponry. This is partially true. Battle: Los Angeles is more like Black Hawk Down mixed with Independence Day. For the entire movie we’re running alongside this team of Marines on the ground complete with “realistic” shaky-cam footage to make it look like a hectic battlefield. If you got sick in Cloverfield prepare for the same kind of jarring, blurry ride in this one too.
We’re quickly introduced to all the Marines in the battalion at the beginning, each of them with their own personal dramas. One soldier is leaving a pregnant wife, one is dealing with the pressure of running his first command, and another just wanting to be done with Marine duties. The problem is, after meeting all these characters at the beginning of the movie, they soon become lost in the shuffle as the aliens begin attacking and the camera begins shaking. It’s impossible to keep track of who is alive and who is dead. There’s a storyline about a little girl which is dropped in the middle of the movie and never talked about again. I kept wondering what happened to her, yet it was never explained. Eckhart’s easily recognizable, the rest of them just blend into the background and become target practice for trigger-happy aliens.
The platoon marches through downtown L.A. dodging attack after attack from hostile aliens. These aliens don’t shoot ray guns or plasma blasts. Their weaponry seems much more humanistic with rail guns and missile clusters. They also seem relatively easy to kill, but with every alien invasion movie there’s simply just too many of them. Makes me wonder how these alien races are reproducing so fast. Do you think if humans decided to invade another distant planet that the numbers of our fighting forces would be able to take the indigenous population down?
The movie follows the action movie playbook exactly, complete with inexplicably bad one-liners whenever a Marine takes out an alien. The previews make Battle: Los Angeles look like an epic struggle between man and alien. In that way it succeeds for the most part. It’s decent enough action gets you through the movie’s runtime, but there aren’t any “Whoa!” moments to be had. These bipedal aliens' metal war suits are versions of something that we’ve seen dozens of times before. There’s just not much to hope for in the way of neato graphics and fight scenes.
Battle: Los Angeles may satiate your action craving for a little while, but it won’t last for very long. It’s simply another alien invasion film without much to it. Still, in the right frame of mind it could make for a fun time at the theater.
Battle: Los Angeles is yet another alien attack movie in the long line of alien attack movies. Is there anything that lets it pull away from the herd? Not really. The previews make this look like a CG-fest for the eyes, watching aliens getting mowed down while they in turn flatten our earthling cities with advanced weaponry. This is partially true. Battle: Los Angeles is more like Black Hawk Down mixed with Independence Day. For the entire movie we’re running alongside this team of Marines on the ground complete with “realistic” shaky-cam footage to make it look like a hectic battlefield. If you got sick in Cloverfield prepare for the same kind of jarring, blurry ride in this one too.
We’re quickly introduced to all the Marines in the battalion at the beginning, each of them with their own personal dramas. One soldier is leaving a pregnant wife, one is dealing with the pressure of running his first command, and another just wanting to be done with Marine duties. The problem is, after meeting all these characters at the beginning of the movie, they soon become lost in the shuffle as the aliens begin attacking and the camera begins shaking. It’s impossible to keep track of who is alive and who is dead. There’s a storyline about a little girl which is dropped in the middle of the movie and never talked about again. I kept wondering what happened to her, yet it was never explained. Eckhart’s easily recognizable, the rest of them just blend into the background and become target practice for trigger-happy aliens.
The platoon marches through downtown L.A. dodging attack after attack from hostile aliens. These aliens don’t shoot ray guns or plasma blasts. Their weaponry seems much more humanistic with rail guns and missile clusters. They also seem relatively easy to kill, but with every alien invasion movie there’s simply just too many of them. Makes me wonder how these alien races are reproducing so fast. Do you think if humans decided to invade another distant planet that the numbers of our fighting forces would be able to take the indigenous population down?
The movie follows the action movie playbook exactly, complete with inexplicably bad one-liners whenever a Marine takes out an alien. The previews make Battle: Los Angeles look like an epic struggle between man and alien. In that way it succeeds for the most part. It’s decent enough action gets you through the movie’s runtime, but there aren’t any “Whoa!” moments to be had. These bipedal aliens' metal war suits are versions of something that we’ve seen dozens of times before. There’s just not much to hope for in the way of neato graphics and fight scenes.
Battle: Los Angeles may satiate your action craving for a little while, but it won’t last for very long. It’s simply another alien invasion film without much to it. Still, in the right frame of mind it could make for a fun time at the theater.
(3 out of 5)
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