“Battle: Los Angeles” boasts that it is a mix of “Independence Day” and "District 9," only cooler. How could you go wrong with a raw, gritty war movie with cheesy aliens and uplifting speeches from our Commander in Chief? The problem is that while “Battle: Los Angeles” has its fun moments, it is missing important elements and never lives up to either of its predecessors.
The story begins a few days before Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is about to retire from the Marines. While he is out on a routine training operation with some fresh new Marines, they are all called back to base due to an impending threat. NASA has found asteroids hurtling towards earth that, instead of making an impact, are slowing down. Once the dust settles, thousands of extra terrestrial soldiers make their way out of the water and begin a full-scale attack on Los Angeles. Nantz and his unit are charged with the duty of evacuating civilians from a local police department and getting them to safety before an airstrike on the area is carried out.
“Battle: Los Angeles” is the latest entry into the alien invasion genre. While it isn’t the worst entry, it isn’t the best by any means. The acting is as good as it can be but the movie only gives enough back story to each character to try to instill the audience with sympathy and we’re never given enough to grab a hold. The commander of the group, Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez), is fresh out of officer school and expecting his first child, but that’s all we are given. I don’t want to sound heartless, and I’m a father myself, but just because he’s a father doesn’t make him a likeable character. Corporal Kevin Harris (Ne-Yo) is one of the other few soldiers into whose life we get a glimpse. His brother is a fallen Marine who was under the command of Nantz when he died, so of course this is the main form of tension for the group. The strongest character of the group is Eckhart’s Nantz. His back story is constantly teased but is never revealed until emotions are soaring so high that it just seems right to reveal what happened on that one "fateful day."
The plot is the biggest problem with this movie. (SPOILER ALERTS) Not only do we never really get to know our characters but we never get to know earth’s adversaries and when we do they just come off as ridiculous. They first come to earth and begin systematically wiping us out for colonization. As we learn from the ongoing newscasts, the first rule of colonization is wiping out the indigenous species so that natural resources can be acquired. I could buy this if they were in need of multiple sources of energy, but all they need is water. So I ask myself, wouldn’t it just be easier to just sneak in when we’re not looking, suck out all of the water and sneak back out?!? I would think that would be a waste of fuel to charge a full-scale invasion.
In my opinion, “Battle: Los Angeles” falls short in the most important aspect of an alien-invasion movie and that is the inspirational speech. Just when everything seems bleak and there’s no hope, the hero steps up and gives a rousing speech that lights a fire under everyone’s butt. I still get chills when Bill Pullman gives his speech in “Independence Day.” The problem I had with Nantz isn’t the fact that he wasn’t up to the challenge; it was that his speech made me scratch my head. I didn’t feel like picking up a M16 and kicking alien butt. I felt more like making Nantz sit in the corner for a timeout.
“Battle: Los Angeles” definitely has its highs. The shaky cam style of filmmaking actually lends itself to the movie and makes the battle scenes feel more real and gritty. While there are a lot of things wrong, the movie is still entertaining as long as you flip the old brain into neutral.
The DVD is a little low on special features. There are a few behind-the-scenes featurettes but nothing out of this world. Ha, space humor.
Film: 3 Yaps Extras: 1.5 Yaps