'Battle: Los Angeles' Review

Here is a film that flashes moments of competence and several relatively exciting battle sequences, just not any other substance. The film fails in almost every aspect of the construction process: story, characters, dialogue, directing and the acting, resulting in a shell of a film. While naming all of these might be a bit excessive, I assure you it is not, this film is really not a cinematic achievement on any level and is not a movie I would recommend to anyone.

So sick? You bet.

Battle: LA stars Aaron Eckhart as a Staff Sergeant in the US Marine Corps, a miscast if there ever was one.  Eckhart is known more for being a smooth talking, good looking guy, not a foul mouthed, intimidating authority figure, and to me it is in the foremost as to why this film fails. His character is flat and uninteresting, with absolutely zero character development, leaving me to wonder what a script like this (besides the aliens invading) drew him into this role. Besides Eckhart, there were several other recognizable faces. Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan and Ne-Yo play various other parts in the film- cementing my dislike for Rodriguez as an actress but showing me what kind of talent Ne-Yo has as an actor (seriously).

After sitting through a 2 hour headache of a film I had trouble identifying a main plot line- or story. Yes, the planet is overrun by aliens and obviously the humans want to get rid of them but all the main characters seem to do is run around and shoot at 'em with no real plan. It is not until the beginning of act 3 that any of the characters make a decision as to what they are going to do to stop the aliens, and by that point I really didn't care. Built out of the same mold as story, is the unrealistic situations these characters find themselves facing. There are several instances when the marines stand around and watch CNN or other news networks and learn the news that way instead of being briefed by the commanding officers; and other times it seems as though the world stops for minutes at a time while these characters talk or interact with others.

In this film there is evidence of an inordinate amount of cliche, stealing pages out of the scripts of films like Black Hawk Down and District 9. I tried to keep track but after the Lieutenant yelled, "Marines, wooooh-haaaaah!" I mentally checked out.

This film also featured an abundance of 'shaky cam,' a style of directing that is in no way becoming to a film. It is usually this style of camera work that give films a gritty, realistic feel- helping the audience to see themselves as an extension of the actors. In this case it does not fit with the rest of the film. The film is an event film ( as evidenced by the thousands of commercials promoting it) and not as artsy as it tries to be. This is not The Hurt Locker, this is supposed to be a popcorn flick that doesn't have to take itself seriously, and while parts of the film do this successfully, others do not, making a very up and down film going experience.

2/10 - Wait for the DVD