Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Reviews

• What the hell did everyone expect?

  imdb962011-03-12

  I go to Transformers to see Megan Fox look good and giant robots fight. I went to Battle: LA to see the American military and aliens shoot and blow each other up. A lot of people seem to think this was supposed to be some kind of District 9 movie. Sure, if you evaluate it on the same scale as District 9, it sucks. But if you just wanted to see an awesome action movie, this is the movie for you. Yes, there was no character development. Yes, the plot is a zillion years old. So what? I wasn't looking for those things. Now and then, it's nice to go see a movie with mindless action. 100% of this movie was mindless action. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy it. Compare it to a movie like The Losers or A-Team where the movie tries to build up some characters and an original plot and fail miserably. I would also like to add that there are some nice original points to this movie. For once, the aliens are not infallible. I get pretty tired of the oh-lawd-we-hit-them-with-nukes-and-didn't-kill-one type of alien movie popularized by Independence Day. There is no magic bullet in this movie, the aliens die from bullets, and you have to take out the command and control center to do serious damage (hey, just like in a conventional land war!). I also thought this movie was a decent depiction of a realistic military response to an alien attack. Everyone mobilizes, surrounds the landing zone, and combat ensues when they are attacked. Pretty simple. I also see complaints about camera style. I honestly didn't even notice. It didn't seem any worse than, say, Black Hawk Down. So I give this movie 8/10 on my action movie scale. If you were planning on evaluating it on the thoughtful-work-of-art scale, you must not have seen any of the trailers.

• Black Hawk Down... with Aliens

  Jharrison-222011-03-13

  I saw this film the other day, and I actually really liked it. It was exactly what I expected (maybe a little better). If you want to watch a really well thought out film with lots of character development and interesting subplots this is not the film for you. If you want to watch a bunch of U.S. Marines beat the tar out of invading spacefreaks, then this is the film for you. From when we first encounter the aliens to sometime in the middle, the movie is a nonstop thrill ride. Stuff explodes, aliens get splattered, humans get burned by lasers. In case you didn't already suspect, this film is very violent. Although there isn't a lot of blood, there are certainly a lot of deaths. The action is unpredictable and zany. One minute everyone will be walking somewhere between point A and B, the next, they're crouching behind burned out cars and houses as aliens pour ungodly hellfire onto them from above. The special effects were also quite good, with the exception of a couple bad animations here and there. That being said, the movie suffers when it slows down. The dialogue is poorly written, and delivered decently, but not well. Aaron Eckhart however did a wonderful job as a stony faced marine staff sergeant who keeps a cool head when under fire. Most of the storyline is pretty standard war movie/alien invasion stuff. You know, when after a bunch of fighting everyone gets discouraged and then the leader gives a big motivational speech and the inspirational music plays and everyone feels heroic. So don't expect a masterpiece of modern cinema, expect alien guts and lots of shooting and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

• Spend a 100 million and you get this???

  chas8192011-03-15

  This movie made Skyline look good! Maybe I missed a key part while I was completely baffled that this is the movie they decided to make when they had millions of dollars to spend. Why? Completely predictable, a cast of characters nobody cares about, and we're required to suspend belief time after time just to move the story along. Aliens arrive and invade, but it's OK, they don't have air support. How did they get here then? They have very advanced weapons, but apparently have spent no time learning to aim. It takes lots and lots of bullets to kill the aliens at first, but after a while just one will make them explode. And any time our marines make a significant kill, all action stops so they can Hoo Raa each other and dance a bit. Nevermind the firefight, the aliens will wait. Add in shaky camera work and this mess was virtually unwatchable. Maybe I still have a well developed attention span, so I need more than 10 minutes of action, some filler, 15 minutes of action, more filler, action, filler, lather rinse repeat end. It's movies like this where I think we should be able to ask for refunds! Maybe punitive damages!

• Hoorah, I guess..

  Cunnilingilator2010-09-23

  Just Saw this Film at an advanced screening in Long Beach. Battle: Los Angeles is the tale of Staff Sargeant Nantz' last day as a marine. Without spelling it out or drawing a diagram, the audience and the marine platoon we are following, are immediately deployed into Los Angeles for reasons they do not know. Soon we learn that indeed Aliens are landing off the shore of LA and killing everyone on the beach. The platoon we are following is sent on a mission to get some survivors from a gas station several miles from the coast. Generic movie ensues. The film is shot like Bourne with epilepsy. I'm 21 years old and not too old to follow the action on screen, its just really, really, annoying when 80% of the shots are extremely herky jerky close-ups. There is not a single steady shot in the entire film. Not one. The intensity of the effect wears off right after the first alien is killed. After that the movie spiralled downhill deep, deep into the realm of the cliché. I'm going to name a few character's roles that are in this film, see if you can recognize them from other films you've seen. Experienced, hardened leader who gets a new platoon. Young officer straight out of officer's school who can't handle the action. Bad ass chick who can shoot. Soft and sweet nurse who gets picked up along the way. An Asian guy, a black guy, a white dude from the south, and a rookie make up the main part of the platoon. There is a scene where tension is high and its just a damn dog making noise. Start to see where this is going? This movie had some good things going for it. Its use of silence was well done. The blasting boom of the gunshots were startlingly realistic. The alien spacecrafts are awesome. The aliens themselves are pretty cool. Its just that the screenplay is terrible. SOOOOOO cliché in every way. This is your standard war movie just with Aliens. The ending is just as cliché as the rest of the film. Don't fool yourself into thinking it will actually be difficult to beat the aliens. 0 thought involved. Hopefully Mr. Liebesman has better luck with the final product of Clash 2 than he did with this. Everyone I saw the movie with thought it was pretty bad. Movies like this that I totally enjoyed: District 9, Cloverfield, Avatar (somewhat), City of God (cinematography) and Blackhawk Down. All much, much better than this. District 9 and the Bourne Identity had a really stupid baby.

• Finally ... What I wanted to see after I watched the trailer for Skyline !!!!

  sstallion2011-03-14

  I went into this movie with low expectations after the relative disappointment which was skyline, a film that promised so much from the trailer and delivered far less. However, im glad to say any misgivings I had were quickly expelled. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't the greatest film ever made, and in many ways it fails to hold a candle to the likes of independence day, which in my opinion is one of the greatest films of its type ever made. It does however, bring a much more up close and personal aspect to an alien invasion. Its more like watching a war filmed in Iraq or something, but that in itself is what separates it from a muddle of recent alien invasion movies that fails to ignite any kind of fire in the mind. The film moves at an unrelenting pace, with good action sequences and cgi to boot, its predictable at times and the ending fails to come up with something clever or original, but hey ... you cant have everything !!!