BATTLE: LOS ANGELES : Review

Opens with Nantz and the Marines already airborne and headed into L.A., before flashing back to the previous 24 hours where the film gives us our obligatory intros to the various characters. Or, expectedly, as many jarheads as it can introduce in the space of 20 minutes before we have to go to war. This ain’t a Jane Austen drama, after all, so everyone pretty much gets a single/major personality before it’s time to sink or swim. And besides, it’s not like most of these guys are going to survive, anyway. Even for a PG-13 film, “Battle: Los Angeles” racks up quite an impressive body count, with Marines dropping dead left and right as soon as they jump into combat. Because of the rating, the deaths are all surprisingly bloodless; the red stuff does come out, but no guts are spill out onto the streets of L.A. in anything approaching gory fashion.

It’s not all about the Marines, of course. Nantz and the boys are initially tasked with rescuing civilians at a police station, where they meet cute vet Michele (Bridget Moynahan, TV’s “Blue Bloods”) and single father Joe (Michael Pena, “Shooter”) and his son Hector (Bryce Cass). They also pick up a stranded Airman in Michelle Rodriguez, doing what Michelle Rodriguez does best, which is capably fill out the tough female quotient. To screenwriter Christopher Bertolini’s credit, Rodriguez’s Airman doesn’t get any odious scenes of grrrl power, though she’s certainly more than capable, and proves it in the heat of battle. Moynahan and Eckhart do what they can with giving our tough leading man Marine someone to create sparks with, but it’s not very convincing and perhaps Liebesman realized this early on and doesn’t continue to push the faux romance.

If the Strauss brothers got it wrong with “Skyline”, than Liebesman and Bertolini got it pretty damn right with “Battle: Los Angeles”. It’s far from a great movie, let me be clear, but as an alien invasion movie on war mode, it’s got all the right ingredients of badassness, war action, and tough hombres fighting their way through impossible situations to please most people. There are shades of pretty much every alien invasion movie you’ve seen before in “Battle: Los Angeles”, but the film certainly comes through with its promise of “‘Black Hawk Down’ with aliens” sales pitch. The firefights are pretty intense, even if it’s never really clear what exactly those alien invaders are shooting. Are those projectiles or lasers? Your guess is as good as mine. And yeah, those aliens sure look like they’re spread mighty thin, because there’s never really all that many of them at one time.

The aliens are also not nearly as well fleshed out (if you will) as the humans, but that’s understandable given that this is a story told entirely from the POV of the invaded and not the invaders. Like most alien menace, our foes always have that one Achilles Heel that, once discovered, turns them incredibly vulnerable. I would have preferred not to see this old standby used again, and instead have the Marines simply slug it out to the bitter end. I suspect that if “Battle: Los Angeles” proved successful enough to warrant a sequel or two (“Battle: New York”, anyone?), we’ll learn more about the aliens and their motives. Until that happens, though, “Battle: Los Angeles” is one hell of an alien invasion kick-off for 2011. For now, at least, it’s the film to beat.

Jonathan Liebesman (director) / Christopher Bertolini (screenplay)

CAST: Aaron Eckhart … SSgt. Michael Nantz

Ramon Rodriguez … 2nd Lt. William Martinez

Cory Hardrict … Cpl. Jason Lockett

Gino Anthony Pesi … Cpl. Nick Stavrou

Ne-Yo … Cpl. Kevin Harris

James Hiroyuki Liao … LCpl. Steven Mottola

Bridget Moynahan … Michele

Noel Fisher … Pfc. Shaun Lenihan

Adetokumboh M’Cormack … Corpsman Jibril Adukwu

Bryce Cass … Hector Rincon

Michael Peña … Joe Rincon

April 18, 2011