In Battle: Los Angeles marine staff sergeant Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) leads a platoon into combat against extraterrestrials, in of all places Los Angeles. Unfortunate for Nantz he never comes across any of the famed LA gangs. We all know O-Dog would have been down the 187.
Director Jonathan Liebesman puts the audience almost right in the shoes of the marines. We are privy to the intel they get, and nothing more. On that end I commend Battle: Los Angeles for attempting to make a serious war film out of what is oft times a lax genre.
The creatures they are fighting look like cyborg versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, armed with implanted miniguns. Not the coolest looking aggressors, but they appear realistic, as do all other visuals in the film.
This assignment isn’t a breeze for Nantz. Not only does his new squad distrust him for his recent past, but along the way the platoon finds some civilians to rescue. So not only are they bewildered over how to stop these advanced colonists, but they also have to get people to safety which it turns out isn’t easy to locate.
A plus for the film is found in the honest effort of the performances. Many characters have little to work with, but they successfully convey the needed emotions. Everyone appears genuinely afraid, proud, and motivated. More could have been done to make them individuals, but thank god Eckhart is the only one with an inspirational speech as too many would have slowed the movie.
I realize that shakycam is en vogue, but I promise that it won’t stand the test of time. The whole purpose of the technique is to heighten realism by simulating a documentary perspective, as though the chaos on screen is unplanned. This can be useful in combat scenes, but when characters are standing face to face conversing it’s a nuisance. Imagine if you were creating a documentary and the cameraman couldn’t stop bobbing his head. You got the idea. Combine this with a jerky zoom and you’ve ruined tension, which is what happens in Battle: Los Angeles far too often.
I’ve found two approaches for including kids in action heavy movies that work. One is to focus on a small number of kids, ideally one or two. These kids may offer a useful idea, help carry the load, but above all they have some personality traits and before the chaos they act like kids. The other approach that yields little annoyance is to have a class full of kids that the battle hardened men have to protect. This way no one child has enough lines to betray the patience of the audience. Well, Battle: Los Angeles does neither. The two kids thrown into this film have almost no lines, no pre-battle personas, and essentially do nothing to better their situation.
The concept behind Battle: Los Angeles is so simple that you’ll be looking for deeper messages. If you seek a political message, how about this one: maybe we really do need F-22 Raptors. Even as we get exposed to the intent of the aliens, we find it hard to believe. I actually wish it had gone unstated because their allege motive runs contrary to their actual actions. This isn’t something I want to get into for fear of exposing spoilers, but let me leave it at they are in the wrong place to maximize excavation of the resource they’re after. I’d also like to know how they can build a giant command ship underneath LA within a few hours, almost for the intent of giving Nantz something to destroy for a victory condition.
The plot of Battle: Los Angeles is razor straight. No big surprises, no special realizations lead to a turn in the war, not even an interesting subplot. It wasn’t all that long ago that these alien invasion films were fun. Remember Independence Day? In that movie everyone had a funny line. In that movie a somewhat innovative idea turned the tide, and it was executed in a lighthearted way. It was also PG-13, just like Battle: Los Angeles. The difference is that this new take on the genre is so uptight about crossing into R territory (where it should have been from the start) that integrity is lost. These marines are in the thick of it, but they hardly ever find a dead body. What could have potentially been gripping is mostly passable with a few good moments. **½
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