Movie Review: Battle Los Angeles
"Battle: Los Angeles" is a big, loud, stupid movie. That much is clear from the very opening. Explosions greet us in the first frame, and we have that instinctual feeling that those explosions aren't going to cease until the final one. After a few opening minutes of people running and screaming, and more explosions, the director (Jonathan Liebesman) seemed to remember that there needs to be a bit of exposition. BORING! Text across the screen then reads: "Invasion- Minus 24 Hours". What? You mean yesterday? Why "minus 24 hours"? Whatever.
So then we're introduced to the platoon that we presume we'll soon see fighting aliens. It plays as a checklist of soldier stereotypes, as opposed to real people that we might care about. Aging soldier who just got demoted, check. Young soldier who just got promoted, check. Soldier who lost his brother in combat, check. Soldier with PTSD who has to visit psychiatrist, check. Soldier who's a complete newb and is still a virgin, check. There's a lot of characters, each given a few minutes of screen time. I guess it's supposed to make us care about them, so that when they get shot at, and possibly die, we'll care. But none of them are particularly likable, and there's so many characters I had a hard time keeping track of them.
Meanwhile, the camerawork on display is some of the worst I've ever seen in a major studio release. It's done in the popular "shaky cam" documentary style, but for no particular reason. The framing is always a little off, or a lot off, with the cameraman seemingly just placing the camera at random places and starting to film. In other words, with this film, "documentary style" is code for "bad camerawork".
The plot is often hard to keep track of. I was actually paying attention throughout the whole movie, and still had a hard time keeping track of what their specific mission was at any given time. Basically, it begins with a cluster of meteor showers, harboring violent alien lifeforms, hitting off the coast of about 20 major cities across the globe. Soon after the invasion, Aaron Eckhart's platoon is sent out to go rescue some civilians from a police station. After that, they're basically cut off from the outside world. They can't travel by air, because the aliens have sophisticated drones piloting the sky, and they have to traverse across the city, shooting any aliens that get in their way.
Soon, with the help of an air force intelligence officer (Michelle Rodriguez), they discover that the flying drones that have been giving them problems are controlled by a large, floating control center. If their crew can simply take out the control center, the American military could stand a fighting chance of winning the battle.
It never seems very realistic that these soldiers are faring as well as they do. The aliens in this film are vastly technologically superior, and it really doesn't make sense that they wouldn't be able to kill a few marines shooting from behind wrecked cars. At one point, the entire platoon (and a few rescued civilians) get on a large orange bus, and begin to drive through Los Angeles, while dozens of drones are flying overhead, shooting at other random stuff. Are they really too busy to notice the bright orange bus that's cruising by?
The dialogue is astonishingly bad. I would say that it seems like it was written by actual marines, but that would be insulting to the marines. Hoo-rah! "Do you think they're extra-terrestrial?" asks one soldier. Let's see: they came from space, and they're ALIVE. Yep, I think that counts as extra-terrestrial. But most of the dialogue is simply orders being barked, and affirmations being barked back. The words are often unintelligible, and seemingly unimportant. It's the intensity that they're yelled with that matters.
There are a few redeeming qualities, believe it or not, in "Battle: Los Angeles". First of all, it helps that the film isn't trying to make any sort of political message, besides maybe "marines are awesome". I'm so sick of sci-fi films trying to shove political or social awareness down my throat, it was kind of refreshing to see a movie that was just too dumb to care. Also the visual effects were pretty awesome, it's just too bad they didn't have a better team of camera operators to effectively film them.
I probably went into this movie with too high of expectations. The trailer was awesome, but then again, so was the trailer for "Clash of the Titans". Like with that film, I couldn't help but feel slightly duped, having been lured into a film simply because I thought it looked cool. But unlike "Clash of the Titans", this one was actually enjoyable. If you're into seeing the world explode without having to think about anything, this movie is definitely recommended. Just don't be a fool and spend $12 on it like I did.
So then we're introduced to the platoon that we presume we'll soon see fighting aliens. It plays as a checklist of soldier stereotypes, as opposed to real people that we might care about. Aging soldier who just got demoted, check. Young soldier who just got promoted, check. Soldier who lost his brother in combat, check. Soldier with PTSD who has to visit psychiatrist, check. Soldier who's a complete newb and is still a virgin, check. There's a lot of characters, each given a few minutes of screen time. I guess it's supposed to make us care about them, so that when they get shot at, and possibly die, we'll care. But none of them are particularly likable, and there's so many characters I had a hard time keeping track of them.
Meanwhile, the camerawork on display is some of the worst I've ever seen in a major studio release. It's done in the popular "shaky cam" documentary style, but for no particular reason. The framing is always a little off, or a lot off, with the cameraman seemingly just placing the camera at random places and starting to film. In other words, with this film, "documentary style" is code for "bad camerawork".
The plot is often hard to keep track of. I was actually paying attention throughout the whole movie, and still had a hard time keeping track of what their specific mission was at any given time. Basically, it begins with a cluster of meteor showers, harboring violent alien lifeforms, hitting off the coast of about 20 major cities across the globe. Soon after the invasion, Aaron Eckhart's platoon is sent out to go rescue some civilians from a police station. After that, they're basically cut off from the outside world. They can't travel by air, because the aliens have sophisticated drones piloting the sky, and they have to traverse across the city, shooting any aliens that get in their way.
Soon, with the help of an air force intelligence officer (Michelle Rodriguez), they discover that the flying drones that have been giving them problems are controlled by a large, floating control center. If their crew can simply take out the control center, the American military could stand a fighting chance of winning the battle.
It never seems very realistic that these soldiers are faring as well as they do. The aliens in this film are vastly technologically superior, and it really doesn't make sense that they wouldn't be able to kill a few marines shooting from behind wrecked cars. At one point, the entire platoon (and a few rescued civilians) get on a large orange bus, and begin to drive through Los Angeles, while dozens of drones are flying overhead, shooting at other random stuff. Are they really too busy to notice the bright orange bus that's cruising by?
The dialogue is astonishingly bad. I would say that it seems like it was written by actual marines, but that would be insulting to the marines. Hoo-rah! "Do you think they're extra-terrestrial?" asks one soldier. Let's see: they came from space, and they're ALIVE. Yep, I think that counts as extra-terrestrial. But most of the dialogue is simply orders being barked, and affirmations being barked back. The words are often unintelligible, and seemingly unimportant. It's the intensity that they're yelled with that matters.
There are a few redeeming qualities, believe it or not, in "Battle: Los Angeles". First of all, it helps that the film isn't trying to make any sort of political message, besides maybe "marines are awesome". I'm so sick of sci-fi films trying to shove political or social awareness down my throat, it was kind of refreshing to see a movie that was just too dumb to care. Also the visual effects were pretty awesome, it's just too bad they didn't have a better team of camera operators to effectively film them.
I probably went into this movie with too high of expectations. The trailer was awesome, but then again, so was the trailer for "Clash of the Titans". Like with that film, I couldn't help but feel slightly duped, having been lured into a film simply because I thought it looked cool. But unlike "Clash of the Titans", this one was actually enjoyable. If you're into seeing the world explode without having to think about anything, this movie is definitely recommended. Just don't be a fool and spend $12 on it like I did.
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