I had a really busy day on Friday. Had loads to do and never really felt like I was getting anywhere. By the end of the day I was so stressed out and hadn't managed to do even half of what I needed to do. So when my cinema buddy suggested seeing a film, the choices being Battle: Los Angeles, Fair Game or Hall Pass, I jumped at the chance to escape for a few hours.
I let my buddy pick and it turns out he went with the most mind numbing of the three which was great for me as it meant that I could give my brain a break for a few hours.
If you've seen the trailer for Battle: Los Angeles you'll know that it's a creature feature in which a group of US Marines are attempting to safeguard Los Angeles defences against an alien invasion. Along the way they pick up civilians and lose members of the troupe but they retain their gung-ho attitude to rid the world of the hostile creatures.
I think that may be the shortest synopsis I've ever written but there really isn't a lot to say about the plot of this film. It's your typical aliens-invade-the-world film but as usual we only get to see the devastation of America (in this instance, specifically Los Angeles). Unlike it's predecessors however, Battle: Los Angeles has several quite major voids. It lacks the human elements of films like Signs and Independence Day, it lacks the irony of The Faculty, the comedy of movies like Critters and Men In Black and it has no real horror like Aliens, Predator or The Thing. Which kind of leaves it as a war film with aliens. And as such, it's just really quite boring.
There's not enough time spent getting to know the characters before the aliens arrive and after they've arrived it's all about the battle. There's little to no script, and what is there is laughably bad or cheesy, which leads me to wonder just how much the actors all got paid as I can't see what else made them want to make this movie. It's annoying because there's good actors here, Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Noel Fisher, Michael Pena, Bridget Moynahan, they could all do so much better than this movie.
The direction is shaky from start to finish. I know this is meant to instill a sense of the 'battle' but it just caused me to have a headache and not be able to focus on what was going on. There wasn't ever a decent shot of any of the aliens, which is fine for keeping the audience in suspense for around half the movie, but you should at least have an idea of what they look like by the end. When the credits rolled I could no more have told you what the aliens looked like than I could from just having watched the trailer at the beginning of the film.
It's not the worst film this year but it's not far behind. 5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 11th March 2011
UK Release Date - 11th March 2011
Cast Overview:
Aaron Eckhart ~ Staff Sgt Nantz
Ramon Rodriguez ~ 2nd Lt Martinez
Cory Hardrict ~ Cpl Lockett
Gino Anthony Pesi ~ Cpl Stavrou
Ne-Yo ~ Cpl Harris
Noel Fisher ~ Pfc Lenihan
Michelle Rodriguez ~ TSgt Santos
Neil Brown Jr ~ LCpl Guerrero
Bridget Moynahan ~ Michele
Michael Pena ~ Joe Rincon
Bryce Cass ~ Hector Rincon
Director ~ Jonathan Liebesman
Writer ~ Christopher Bertolini
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