The new alien invasion flick “Battle: Los Angeles” is the type of movie an eight-year-old boy would direct in his wildest dreams.
The dialogue clearly came from a pre-teen’s spiral notepad, and the non-stop action is exactly what a boy would demand from his cast and crew. And, most of all, “Battle: LA” is cool to the core. It’s got neat aliens, intense action sequences and, blissfully, it never dares to take itself seriously.
Grown up audiences will appreciate Aaron Eckhart’s presence as the staff sergeant helping civilians survive the alien assault. He’s a bedrock amongst the shenanigans swirling around him, and without him “Battle: LA” would collapse like a 10-foot Jenga tower.
“Battle” begins with thumbnail sketches of the marines who will soon be in the aliens’ crosshairs. They’re a Benetton ad brought to life, a multi-ethnic stew of likable souls each plastic wrapped with their own quirks and back stories. Staff Sgt. Mike Nantz (Eckhart) can’t forget the disastrous mission he lead back in Iraq. Lt. William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez) is his unit’s way too green leader. Singer Ne-Yo plays a handsome young Marine preparing for his upcoming wedding.
They’re thrown together when a series of meteorites heading to earth transform into an alien invasion writ very large. Sgt. Nantz and his fellow LA-based Marines are tasked with escorting civilians away from the coast in the windup to a military bombing.
Yes, the aliens have made so much progress, so quickly, that flattening the Left Coast is seen as a sound strategy to beat the enemy back.
“Battle” starts with a bang and rarely lets the explosion rate dwindle. When it does, we’re treated to atrocious dialogue, hokey speeches by well intentioned Marines and some remarkably daft movie moments.
Here’s one favorite – Eckhart’s character uses a liquor store clock to count down – to the second – the time when the bombs aimed at the West Coast are meant to go off. It’s clear the military synchronized its weaponry with a random clock found in a random store.
Just plain dumb. And that’s hardly the only head-scratching moment.
But “Battle” bullies past such intellectually adrift moments. The action set pieces are routinely first rate despite excessive use of the dreaded Shaky Cam. These aliens, who look like they came from an aluminum recycling plant, are a surly lot with massive firepower. Just watching Nantz beat back an alien drone with some American ingenuity is enough to win us over.
The film paints the Marines as a plucky lot, imperfect but with hearts pure and true. They’re stand-ins for humanity, and they do their fellow citizens proud. It’s rare to see this on screen, but as a storytelling device it works wonderfully. There’s one heroic moment piled atop another, which is precisely what a movie of this ilk demands given the lack of intellectual depth.
That’s a pleasant way of saying “Battle: LA” is as deep as a puddle, and the eight-year-old boy in you will cheer until the final credits.
(Photo: “Battle: Los Angeles” details an alien invasion from the Marines’ perspective. Columbia Pictures)
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Not exactly sure how to feel about this. I love the kind of B-movie this review describes, but… I guess I wanted this to be a really GOOD movie. Oh well. At least the troops are treated well enough. Sequel?
Did seeing this make your reconsider (even if only slightly) your take on Eberts review of it?
I don’t disagree with much of Ebert’s review. I do think the action is easier to follow that he indicates and packs a visceral wallop.
I think I would enjoy watching Aaron Eckhart as the hero in an action movie. His career has been an unusual one and this seems like new territory for him.
I’m on the cusp of calling shenanigans on Ebert’s review. The f/x were fine and the action, while filmed by shaky cam, was clear and viscerally engaging. But Ebert really has never cared much for action scenes, and the film’s mild pro-military slant must have enraged his good sensibilities.
I really liked the film and didn’t think it was shallow. Sure it played on the usual film stereotypes, the young, virgin, innocent as pie marine we meet at the begining might as well as had a huge target painted on his chest.
Regarding the liquor store clock, they also showed him looking at the time on his watch as it counted down.
Some of the dialogue towards the end in a couple spots was a little hokey though.
I liked the fact that they played it straight ,no wise cracking or smart ass remark everytime an alien was killed. When the shooting started it was all business and very little or no humor.
The one thing I really enjoyed (which others might not) was how they stuck with the Marines of 2/5 from start to finish. There wasn’t a moment of the film that I noticed where a Marine wasn’t in the scene. Usually they break up the action in these movies by going back and forth between a battle, and an expert scientist or “command” at the FOBs or theres a secondary plot following a group of unrelated survivors or something of the like. They usually treat the military in these movies as a single interchangeable blob of a character. Like Cloverfield for example. All you watch from a military perspective is countless ground forces getting over run or acting like big brother and roughing up civilians. In this movie you get a “realistic” (as a Hollywood alien movie can be) military feel- from their perspective. Not just Marine, but a little Air Force too. And how often can we say we see Air Force ground personnel in any kind of lead role in a military/war/action film. Sure some Para-jumpers had a few lines in Black Hawk Down, but this was a nice change of pace for the fictional B-movie alien genre. It reminded me of “Aliens” without the over the top macho Marines.
Like opus, I enjoyed the more solemn aspects of pic. Those shooting scenes were fantastic, and I tightened up during that first ambush on the way to the police station, when the aliens are still unknown and their fire just seems withering and impossible to counter.
The worst movie of the year, here are some highlights
1. the alien a love child of aliens and predator
2. the american soldiers trying to figure out how to kill an alien asks a civilian who replies i am a vetenerian, and than they never use that knowledge to kill.
3. marine dialogues with annoying background music.
“Kill anything thats not alien”
“I am doing this for my family, friends and the country” (note not the world who give a f about the rest of the world)
4. A bunch of the worst actors.
I can go on and on.
This review is what happens when you send a wine and food critic (or “wanna be” critic) to Hooters to review the restaurant….they can’t see past their own pomposity to appreciate the place for what it is. If you go there expecting an extensive wine cellar and fine cuisine, you will surely leave disappointed. If, however, you go expecting decent food and to be entertained, you’ll be fine.
NO one goes to Battle: LA expecting academy award performances or a storyline that will endure for the ages. It is what is. Go there expecting to entertained for a couple of hours…it’s fine for that.
I enjoyed it for the most part .
I could had done without the Shaky Cam and the closeups though .
The movie struck an emotional chord with the audience.
Now ,if we could just get a positive portrayal of the Military facing a HUMAN enemy.
Well ryan everyone of your points, like all reviewing is subjective,but to address a couple of your points.
If someone is in your house trying to kill you and your family you aren’t worrying about saving your neighbor. So for a single grunt not declaring he’s doing it to save the world isn’t really selfish.
Also the civilian did help figure out how to kill the aliens and they did attempt to use that info, by trying to shoot them below the heart.
It was nice to see the U.S. military portrayed as competent, professional, and human (no pun intended). It was also nice to see the aliens portrayed in a realistic manner. They also used cover, dragged their wounded out of the killzone, called in airstrikes or heavier weaponry when confronted by a strongpoint, and showed a comprehension of small unit tactics. Really a nice touch that made the movie better for me.
I saw the movie with my 15 year old son today and we both loved it. Along with everyone else in the audience as far as I could tell. Action scenes were great and the American military was portrayed in a good light for a change.
The shaky-cam was annoying at first but once the story gets going you forget about it for the most part.
Someone up above made a comment about how the Marines said they were doing it to protect their families and their country, but failed to mention protecting the world. Well, I got news for you, their world is the world right in front of them, not everywhere else. Do you think the Brits or French would be saying, “lets protect the world” as they were fighting in London or Paris?
Writing wasn’t that great in parts, but like I said in another thread, if you wanted to fall asleep in a movie go see The King’s Speech.
Will be seeing this movie again.
Go Marines!
Really?? We are now going to judge an action movie in terms of it being simplistic??
Ok then you need to eliminate 95% of all the action movies to date, since very few have more than rudimentary dialogue and character development. I don’t go to see war movies to sit and listen to someone talk in great details about their view of life and the nature of mankind. Nor do I wasn’t them to over analyze the situation and drag the movie down, that is what hurt movies like Terminator 4.