Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

A Marine Staff Sergeant who has just had his retirement approved goes back into the line of duty in order to assist a 2nd Lieutenant and his platoon as they fight to reclaim the city of Los Angeles from alien invaders.

Trailer

"Shit, I'd rather be in Afghanistan"

Aliens have invaded and it's up to a small group of Marines to hold ground in LA. They must rescue civilians and get the hell out of dodge before the city gets bombed.

Not a whole hell of a lot of plot in this one, but what else can you expect from an alien invasion movie. Battle: Los Angeles is a mix of Black Hawk Down and Independence Day, two films that are better than this one. You would think combining the two would lead to an sure fire winner. The film is loud and in your face, I mildly enjoyed it, but thought the overall experience was pretty lacking. 

The camera is more jolting here than in most hand-held camera movies like Cloverfield or Quarantine. I honestly thought the cameraman dropped the camera and picked it back up in one scene and they decided to keep it in to hide the fact that they didn't know what they were doing. I went into this film not expecting greatness, I simply wanted to be entertained. The film somewhat accomplishes this, for a few short moments, but near the end I found myself watching the same scenes play out over and over again. They get stuck in some location, have to shoot their way out, repeat. This is a very redundant film. 

I love some of the effects, the initial attack and carnage is great. The spaceships are mechanical so nothing too awe inspiring there. The aliens themselves are what really disappointed me. We never get a clear image of them and when we get something close enough, we see how uninspiring they are. The film is a war movie dressed up like a sci/fi, it should have been the other way around. It felt like an ad for the Marines.

The acting is as expected, nothing to talk about. People simply yell things at each other because they are in the heat of combat. Two civilians show up, Bridget Moynahan and Michael Peña, to make us feel like we are caught in the cross fire as well, since we are not marines wielding weapons. Speaking of the marines, I did not know who was who and I didn't give a damn. They all could have died and I probably wouldn't have noticed. 

Battle: Los Angeles biggest defeat is how generic and blah it turned out to be. There was no awe moment, which I was waiting for. No kick ass moment or even a scene that stood out above the rest. The whole movie went through the war movie clichés and didn't even seem to try to make a mark in the sci/fi genre. Will we be talking about this movie in the next few years? Nope, I doubt we will be talking about it in the next few months. That's the problem, it's a forgettable action, sci/fi flick.

6/10

Have you seen it? If so, what's your opinion?