Running time: 116 min. Rating: Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman Written by: Christopher Bertolini Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Michael Peña
Mobster’s Rating: 
Early reviews of Battle: Los Angeles have suggested the film is a chaotic, frantic mess that focuses more on action and FX than character definition. Furthermore, all of those traits somehow qualify it as a disaster. This criticism feels like an exercise in futility, the equivalent of puttering through the McDonald’s drive-thru and then screaming and cursing when what you get is a greasy burger and some salty fries. In an era when film trailers never seem to accurately portray the movies they advertise, Battle:Los Angeles turns out to be exactly what the ad spots are selling; Marines on the ground during an alien attack band together to save civilians and themselves.
Loaded with flaws and too long by about thirty minutes, Jonathan Liebesman‘s sci-fi thriller still manages to satisfy its basic promise and delivers a modest popcorn flick that you needn’t feel guilty for afterwards. The severe negativity most likely stems from the genre bait-and-switch that has honestly masked an old-fashioned men-on-a-mission movie as a science fiction extravaganza. If it’s alien cultures and space heroics you are looking for, check one theater over at Mars Needs Moms. If you want thought provoking speculative fiction, then I’m sure you can still hit up The Adjustment Bureau.
But, if the idea of watching an live-action video game that takes its inspirations from Black Hawk Down, Zulu and countless WWII movies sounds like a good time, then sign up for Battle: LA. What you lose with the absence of a controller and multiple lives, you make up for with edgy cinematography and the specific treat of watching the very real human expressions of Michelle Rodriguez and Aaron Eckhart when they realize their all-powerful enemies not only bleed, but can also sputter and die when you shoot them.
This last part is important to the film’s appeal and effectiveness. There are very limited details provided regarding the nature of the intergalactic invasion, where the invaders come from, and what the primary goal of their campaign is (although the last one is guessed at). The opening twenty minutes lay the groundwork with a series of fuzzy news feeds and although one would suppose the age of media saturation would garner less haphazard location video than the1970s, most of what we see are indistinct blurs that may or may not be an invading race. Everything that happens after that is observed from the perspective of low-level Marine grunts. This little group is overseen by retiring staff sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), who isn’t even their official leader but, motivated by guilt over young soldiers who died under his command, rises to the occasion and rallies them against an enemy they have never encountered before.
When the film opens in its first epic shot, we see the heroes on route to the landing zone, the war already raging around them and the city of Los Angeles being reduced to rubble. When the movie cuts away from this to go back in time prior to the invasion and introduce these men and their personal stories, it slows down to a deliberate crawl that isn’t necessary. Mostly this is because the script by Christopher Bertolini deals only in clichés and types; the regretful veteran, the feisty Latina, the guy engaged to be married, and the virgin rookie, possibly fighting with the hope that enough of the world will be left for him to remedy that first part.
Down to the tick, they behave as you would expect them too, but mercifully Liebesman rejects the compulsion to fetishize their swagger and weaponry or cheat and make them straw-man targets of anti-military sentiment. Instead, in the movie’s most sensible stroke, they are just a group of focused soldiers fighting to stay alive and complete the mission to which they were assigned. In a clever bit of design, even when a game plan to turn the tide becomes available, the Marines fulfill their original duty first, eschewing some lame-brained sequence where they abandon orders and strike out on their own agenda. Although every hackneyed and melodramatic line ever uttered in a war movie ends up falling on the lips of major characters here, the actors embodying those characters ground the reality of the story with turns that are simple but endearing. When the realities of this intergalactic occupation start showing up and blasting holes in them, we see these people dealing with in a way that is instantly plausible.
Aaron Eckhart is completely convincing as the staff sergeant and he doesn’t phone in a performance of calculated stoicism or canned intensity. Eckhart, looking like Kurt Russel’s weary little brother, commits himself to a man whose emotional landscape is more complex than his mindset, which is acutely attuned to ensuring the survival of those under his care. Bridget Moynahan is wasted as a minor character who feels like she’s shuttled in to play a would-be love interest for Eckhart. Better on the female front is Michelle Rodriguez who shows up and lights up the screen with her pluck and sass, channeling Jeanette Goldstein’s Valesquez and doing a damn fine job of it. Michael Peña, as a civilian who joins the fight to protect his young son, doesn’t have many lines but makes the most of what he does have.
tf you were ever stranded in a burned-out city with hordes of alien soldiers bearing down on you, you would want a man like Nantz to carry the day. He’s broken but pragmatic and my favorite scene involves merciless logic on his part. The team discovers a wounded alien, slowly dying, but Eckhart drags it back and starts tearing into it. He’s not looking for communication, or an explanation; he’s more concerned with discovering a weakness within the enemies’ physiology. Immediate need—how to disable and kill them—is what will save his men and the civilians packed along with them. That, in essence, is the movie’s approach. We don’t learn more than the soldiers know, we aren’t privy to events that have no meaning for them, and what becomes important isn’t understanding the menace but surviving it.
If there’s a clear flaw, it’s in the sci-fi design that gives us a series of soldiers, ships and command centers that lack imagination, awe and mystery. These aliens are supposedly advanced but visually they haven’t evolved much past the bug-eyed critters of an Outer Limits episode. By limiting the intrigue of the creatures, the movie itself is subtly handicapped. This forces everything into the hands of that little band of heroes. At the end of the day, they can take it. When the final stand-off comes, and there’s one scrappy attempt to throw down the alien scum, I was strangely roused by it, excited that there were no intrepid cable repair men, rogue scientists or Jersey construction workers saving the day. Just a bunch of no-nonsense Marines. I can dig that.
Excellent review, and I agree with all of your critiques. Your comparison to Black Hawk Down is spot on, and it’s too bad they were not closer in tone. When BHD succeeds so well is in NOT showing us the extraneous relationships of the soldiers, their wives, loved ones, etc.
It is very easy to identify with a soldiers simple desire to do his job well and live to brag about it. The fear of death is so universal that a movie likes this wastes precious time trying to give the audience extra and unnecessary emotional points to identify with. Those character backgrounds are not the biggest problem I had with the film though, for me there was just too much bad dialog.
At points where simply the impressive direction and quality effects could have easily compelled the audience to stay engaged with the characters, someone will have to say ‘I can’t believe that worked!’ or ‘They’re falling like bowling pins!’ Sadly, a lot of this comes from Michele Rodriguez, and really cheapens what is a good performance from her.
I can see your point on how the movie was 20 or so minutes too long, but I found the ‘extra’ act a welcome encore to where the natural story beat would have ended.
I’d give this 3.5 of 4, and definitely recommend it be seen and heard on a big screen.
Marc
I’m so happy to hear someone say that this is not a complete waste of time. To hear most talk about it, it’s like someone lumper Battlefield: Earth into a closet with 2012 and told them to foot-bind the baby and have it dance in the middle of Madison SQuare Garden with a live feed broadcast to the world.
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Had this been a straight solder vs aliens feature, instead of shoehorning in a bunch of useless civillian characters, the focus of this film could have been more on the action and tension of survival than the often wishy-washy patriotic “everybody’s a soldier… on the inside” waffle we’re given by way of character development.
Effects are awesome, sound is awesome, but the characters are wafer thin (to quote John Cleese)and the lack of emotional depth means Battle: LA limps along instead of striding like the soldier warrior it so desperately wanted to be.
Looking forward to this on BluRay!!