Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridget Moynahan
Directed By: Jonathan Liebesman
Written By: Christopher Bertolini
Produced By: Jeffrey Chernov, Neal H. Moritz and Ori Marmur
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: Approximately minutes
Website: battlela.com
Budget: $100 million
Genre: Action, Science Fiction
Release Date: March 11, 2011
It may not shock you to learn that aliens walk among us, and they want our stuff. It’s not clear which stuff exactly – our bodies, our resources, our planet – and it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that an implacable enemy from beyond is invading in the most blood-curdling way possible, so what’s a beleaguered human race to do but respond in kind?
If you missed last year’s aliens-blow-up-Los-Angeles movie Skyline… well, you didn’t actually miss anything, really. The umpteenth iteration of the “alien invaders want our stuff” scenario that so intrigues filmmakers, Skyline dealt with a handful of privileged Hollywood types holed up in a luxury L.A. penthouse during a largely unexplained global invasion from outer space. The characters, cut off from a lot of information and unable to adequately fend for themselves, spend most of the movie hiding from the predatory alien drones and waiting for a military aid that doesn’t really end well for anyone.
Battle: Los Angeles has the same superficial premise as Skyline, and could easily be interpreted as a switched-perspective counterpart to it. The surface resemblances aside – the alien invasion plot hasn’t changed much since the original War of the Worlds – Battle: Los Angeles is actually a much better movie. Skyline was confused and claustrophobic, a function of both its small budget and filmmakers with little to no sense of storytelling. Battle: LA wisely switches perspectives, putting the viewer in the shoes of the military forces drawn into extraterrestrial combat, opening up smoky, debris-strewn tableaus of a ruined metropolis and instantly creating a much more intense viewing experience.
Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight’s Two-Face) stars as Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, recently returned from a botched mission overseas and feeling his age as he whips young Marines into fighting shape. Our first warning of imminent threat isn’t the news footage of simultaneous meteor strikes across the world, it’s that Nantz has officially put in his notice for retirement – come on, Mike, don’t you know that being close to retirement is the easiest way to get killed in an action movie? Nantz’s post-military plans are scuttled when the meteors turn out to be an invading force of aliens striking off the coast of Earth’s major cities. It’s all hands on deck, as Nantz is forced to deploy with a company of Marines and assist with the civilian evacuation of Los Angeles. With the clock ticking and a “bomb drop” on Santa Monica imminent, Nantz and his soldiers get caught behind enemy lines and face a seemingly endless horde of marauding aliens and their drones.
Director Jonathan Liebesman reportedly had gritty war dramas like Black Hawk Down in mind while making Battle: Los Angeles, and it shows in the frenetic action sequences – let those who fear shaky, handheld camerawork see this movie at their own risk. It’s not the only thing Liebesman steals from war movies, as Nantz’s company of Marines are boilerplate army movie t types – the Probably Crazy Guy, the Rookie, the Guy Whose Wife is Pregnant, the Guy About to Get Married – and it doesn’t take a lot of guess work to figure most or all of these sketchily characterized soldiers aren’t going to make it back to base.
But remember: aliens want our stuff! It’s not about what they want from us, it’s how much we’re willing to fight to keep it. Battle: Los Angeles does successfully graft the tropes of the war movie onto the science fiction movie. Just replace Nazis or the Viet Cong with slimy alien types and way cooler vehicles and you have Battle: LA. The fights are often brutal and confused, and the soldiers often behave just that way. Louisiana (with some heavy, seamless digital assistance) doubles for Los Angeles, and it hardly makes a difference. In the ruined streets, L.A. is just another war zone, and Liebesman does a fine job replicating the feeling that in war, death can come from around any corner, descend from any rooftop. The real strength of Battle: Los Angeles is in these scenes.
There are a few underdeveloped subplots, including one with a rescued veterinarian (Bridget Moynahan) who seems poised to be a love interest for Nantz, as well as some strident insistence on military heroism (no one needs convincing that Marines are, indeed, brave, laser-toting aliens or no). As perfunctory and often cheesy as these plots and characters can be, they still manage to engage on the basic level of lulls before the storm, battlefield confessions and promises made over dying comrades. It’s the stuff war drama is made of, and that it works almost in spite of itself says something about the general quality of the cast, Eckhart in particular, and the dedication of the filmmakers to the movie’s premise. Not as sympathetic as District 9 or brazenly incompetent as Skyline, Battle: Los Angeles doesn’t elevate the alien invasion movie (as, I would argue, District 9 does), but it doesn’t do the genre a disservice. It shows that a science fiction action movie can run just fine with the out-of-this-world outlandishness brought squarely down to Earth.
3 Stars
