But there also has to be enough lightness - velocity, surprise, even humor - to fulfill the basic escapist mandate.Īnd in those terms “Battle: Los Angeles” does not really pay off, in spite of a dedicated cast that includes Michael Peña, Bridget Moynahan and Michelle Rodriguez, doing a variation on the angry fly-girl who was one of the best things about “Avatar.” The film has to take itself seriously enough to engage the viewer’s emotions, creating credible vicarious fear and exhilaration as the story unfolds.
IMDB BATTLE LOS ANGELES MOVIE
The combination of thematic dumbness and technical competence is certainly better than many of the alternatives, and it may be that dumb fun in this kind of movie presents a special kind of challenge. What did I expect? And also, if it managed to be tolerable for that long, how bad can “Battle: Los Angeles” really be? Fair enough questions. Right then, as it lurches from Act II to Act III, “Battle: Los Angeles” reveals itself to be a lousy movie. Eckhart cannot be blamed for reciting lines he was paid to learn - and doing so with reasonable actorly conviction - it is during his long speech on the meaning of everything that’s happened so far that “Battle: Los Angeles” undertakes what certain savvy show-business types might call “the reveal.” Usually this refers to an especially salient plot point, but here it has a more specific meaning. He says a lot in that scene, and while Mr. Which is what Sergeant Nantz says his life has become in the scene I mentioned earlier.
One of the men (Ne-Yo) is preparing for his wedding, a few others have what sound like Southern accents, and yet another (Gino Anthony Pesi) is from New Jersey, though this fact is withheld until a crucial moment when it can become the punch line of a joke. Their nominal leader is an eager, inexperienced lieutenant (Ramon Rodriguez) with a pregnant wife. In Iraq he lost some men under his command, including one whose brother (Cory Hardrict) is now in his unit. Eckhart) has just filed his retirement papers after a 20-year career that has left a bad taste in his mouth and a haunted look in his eyes. The dialogue is functional, the characters sketched in blunt, bold outlines. Just some slimy creatures with heavy firepower laying waste to the smog-bound skyline and a hearty band of Marines (with a handful of civilians and a tough-as-nails Air Force sergeant thrown in for diversity) fighting a running street battle. No interesting political implications to chew over, as in “District 9,” and no truly breathtaking special effects. Liebesman and his technical team acquit themselves with admirable professionalism.Īn alien blitzkrieg, launched from the waters off the Santa Monica beaches, is rendered in what you might call panic-vision, with hysterical hand-held cameras, staccato editing and ambient dust clouds occasionally illuminated by fiery explosions.Īs the “Saturday Night Live” parody version of Miley Cyrus might say: pretty cool. The City of Los Angeles has been destroyed so many times in recent years - perhaps as wishful thinking on the part of cynical movie-industry people, perhaps as superstitious inoculation against the real thing - that “Battle” feels a bit like the routine training mission its characters first think they are being called up for. Eckhart’s chin, and as lean and square as his jaw. Considered as an alien-invasion science-fiction allegory, it’s about as deep as the dimple on Mr. Until that moment the movie, directed by Jonathan Liebesman from a screenplay by Christopher Bertolini, has proceeded in the expected, large-scale combat-action movie fashion. “Let’s figure out how we’re gonna get out of this mess,” Aaron Eckhart says with about 40 minutes to go in “Battle: Los Angeles.” An excellent idea, and the solution that presents itself is a simple one: stop talking.
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