Film Reviews

Battle: Los Angeles

• Rating:
• Director: Jonathan Liebesman
• Starring: Aaron Eckhart
• Details: USA/116mins 12A

Pitched squarely as a cross between Independence Day and Black Hawk Down, the trailers for Battle: Los Angeles may have promised something special, but this is pretty much your standard war movie - just, y'know, with aliens. The visceral action and impressive effects certainly take it up a notch, but at times it's a couple of guitar string reverberations away from a Michael Bay joint at its air-punching, macho peak. Still, action junkies looking for their fix will find plenty of loud explosions here to distract them while they hoover down some popcorn.
Aliens have invaded major cities around the world, and they're here to drain our resources and wipe us out. But don't worry: the folks of the US Military are on hand to kick some alien ass and save the day. A group of marines make their way through a decimated LA crawling with Ets, searching for survivors before a large part of the city is totalled. Leading them is decorated-but-anguished war hero Staff Sergeant. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart abrasively embodying a Bonnie Tyler song).
We've had a couple of alien invasion movies recently, from the excellent (Monsters) to the downright atrocious (Skyline). Battle: LA certainly has the biggest budget, and helmer Liebesman injects the right amount of urgency to proceedings - yet it still falls flat, script-wise. The clichés are here in abundance, from the solider with the pregnant missus to the rookie on his first mission, all the way to the tortured veteran we've seen in countless other films. It's a transparent attempt at making these jarheads look like human beings, and it mostly fails.
It does work on the action front, though, even if large portions owe a lot to Ridley Scott's 2001 war flick. Eckhart's career solider is oddly reminiscent of Eric Bana's Hoot, and the guerrilla-style skirmishes are also familiar. But if you can let the lack of originality slide (you should really be used to it in Hollywood flicks, at this stage) then you will be entertained. The softer rating does restrict some of the violence, but thankfully, none of the intensity is tamed. Liebesman utilises the handheld camera well enough, and teases early glimpses of the aliens early on before descending into full-on money shot mode.
Slightly disappointing given the hyperbolic buzz, Battle: La is watchable, if sporadically cheesy stuff.

Review by Mike Sheridan