If you have ever seen the trailer or any of the commercials being played on tv recently you know that this is about an alien invasion of Los Angeles. The movie stars Two Face Aaron Eckhart, Lostie Michelle Rodriguez, Ne-Yo, and Transformer 2 alumni Ramon Rodriguez. The film was directed by Johnathan Liebesman. Johnathan also directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Darkness Falls. Battle does not fall anywhere near the previous two films thank God!
We'll start off with the story. Honestly, another generic storyline that we have seen over a hundred times in the past ten years. Nothing really new and original here. Aliens show up in our atmosphere out of nowhere and begin to attack earth. There you go. Nothing more. Nothing less. Through out the film you are given a short answer to why and are left at that. No deep dwelling into the physics of this thing. No major explanations and common sense scheme to the film. Plain and simple. Aliens are here and we follow a platoon of soldiers on a rescue mission in Santa Monica to extract civilians from a local police station. This film is a nerd's eye candy. I read another review saying it was a cross between the video games Call of Duty and Gears of War. I can see that. It is filmed half the time from a first person perspective. It's gritty and you are in the middle of the action and explosions with the aliens shooting at you from all different angles.
Aaron Eckhart is SSgt. Michael Nantz. We find him at the beginning of the film ready to retire from 20 years of being in the marines. Having lost his platoon in an earlier tour of Afghanistan he wants out. He is haunted by the memories and is ready to move on. The day before the alien invasion he finishes training his last group of freshman marines to be deployed to Afghanistan. When the invasion begins he is forced come back and serve under a young, brand new 2nd Lt. William Martinez played by Ramon Rodriguez. Tension plays into the situation because rumors surround Nantz about his earlier platoon. One of the marines that is in the new platoon has a brother killed with Nantz in Afghanistan and holds resentment to him.
As you can probably see where I am going with this. There is tension between Nantz and the young Lt. who is always second guessing himself through the film and the final showdown between Nantz and the brother who is still grieving over his loss. Is this movie shallow in the emotional and human aspect of the story. No, I think it gives us enough to care about Eckhart and the young marines. Granted most of the other characters are just there to fill in the roles and not really that good. Your watching this movie for Eckhart, Ramon briefly, Michelle Rodriguez and Michael Pena who plays a civilian dad stuck at the police station with his son. Your not going to cry your eyes out but you will most likely feel some emotion to what is happening.
What really blows this movie out of the water is the special effects. I haven't watched a movie that looked so real. The aliens looked alien and not of this world but they didn't look cheesy either. You see them up close and they look cool. Everything from the major destruction of LA to the alien head quarters looked absolutely amazing! There were so many explosions in this film. 90% of the film was total non stop action and mayhem. This is a film that you want to see in the theater because I don't think their is a home theater stereo system that could keep up!
Overall, I left the theater feeling like I watched a good movie and my money wasn't all wasted. That $14 for one drink and a popcorn left a bad taste in my mouth. Ever wonder why people just pirate movies instead of going to the cinemas? There ya go people! Ok, Ok....getting off of my subject. Battle: Los Angeles is a great movie to start the year off with hopefully a ton of good movies. I recommend it over and over! Go see this movie for a good time!
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