Film Review - Battle: Los Angeles

I must say, when I see a sci-fi film I escape from anything and everything; I get excited that I have something new to discover. Alien films, in particular, are my favorite! When you have the freedom to create your own alien movie, you need to take risks and make people remember your aliens and their story. The audience doesn’t want to see a boring, dry movie; they are curious, they want action and, most importantly, they want to feel what it would be like to fight for your life during a battle with aliens, which brings us to Los Angeles. Writer Christopher Bertolini takes us straight into the action with a group of marines headed to a random police department where some civilians are hiding out. We have an enormous group of marines, which means lots of characters – naming them all would take up half of my critique! We are given all of their back-stories immediately to try and pull us in emotionally right off the bat. One of them has a pregnant wife, another has a dead brother, one of them is a virgin, etc. It feels forced, and, not to spoil anything, most of them don’t survive anyway! Towards the end of the film we have a stronger bond with the characters because there are fewer of them. Top dog, Aaron Eckhart, is the king of close ups in this one; he provides support with his twenty motivational speeches, his leadership, and his sheer badassness that comes from his years of experience in the Marines. I like Eckhart as an actor; he has played many good roles in his career (Thank You for Smoking) and this role was not bad at all. The dialogue was major cheese, but the delivery worked.

The story is pretty self-explanatory: aliens arrive on earth, for reasons I will not spoil, and we fight them off. What I loved the most about this film was the camera work; it’s fast paced and mostly filmed with a handy cam, but it’s not too much. You kind of feel like you are there with them, blowing up a lot of stuff up and shooting a lot of aliens. I won’t spoil too much of the plot because there are some events that I would like you to see for yourself. The effects are brilliant and the aliens are pretty neat, although you don’t really see them up close for very long, but why would you show your monsters right away when you can keep their appearance and abilities a secret for added suspense.

Director Jonathan Liebesman brings us into this chaotic battle with full force. The sound is loud and the explosions seal the deal. This film is action packed and really entertaining to watch. It looks good, it tugs at your heartstrings, and despite the cheesiness factor, I will see it again and I suggest you see it too. Give this sci-fi film a chance and you might even think that it’s out of this world.

3 out of 5 stars

-Andrea Boulet