Is there any lazier shorthand for “This film is set in Los Angeles” than an establishing shot of downtown from the Hollywood Hills while Tupac’s California Love plays in the background? The relentless and boring assault on the senses that is Battle: Los Angeles is dependably obvious in every moment of its running time.
The new science-fiction movie from director Jonathan Liebesman — an SA expat with a few dodgy horror films under his belt — starts out with a promising premise. But within a few seconds of its opening, it becomes clear that the film is little more than a waste of actor Aaron Eckhart’s talent and millions of dollars of special FX budget.
Battle: Los Angeles is a war movie, but with one difference. The US marines are fighting off extra-terrestrial invaders in their home country rather than commies or terrorists in some foreign land. The film shoots for the grittiness of Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan blended with the fantastic elements of War of the Worlds, but misses the mark completely.
Liebesman is no Neill Blomkamp, but he may be the next Michael Bay. This film may possibly be even flashier, emptier and more cacophonous than Bay’s Transformers flicks. It completely throws any notions of plotting, character development, humour and pacing to the side, figuring that the audience is there only to be pummelled by explosions and gunfire.
Battle: Los Angeles is a ragtag compendium of war and alien invasion clichés that never manages to forge an identity of its own. Eckhart is a tough marine sergeant looking to retire from the army after his troops were wiped out in a disastrous engagement in the Middle East. But when aliens attack, the ball is in his court to make a last-ditch effort to save the planet. He is determined to leave no man behind as he steps up to the plate to prove his mettle.
Poor Eckhart. As his turns in The Dark Knight and Thank You for Smoking showed, he’s a fantastic actor deserving of more screen time. Here, however, he gets to give one of the most laughable military pep talks in movies since Bill Pullman declared 4 July the whole world’s Independence Day.
Then there’s Michelle Rodriguez — clearly in no danger of being typecast — as a hard-as-nails soldier. Seriously, why not put the woman in a romantic comedy for a change? There’s Bridget Moynahan who dutifully turns on the tears and purses her lips in a determined line when the script calls for it.
We know nothing about her until she volunteers to find the vulnerable spot in a captured alien’s anatomy. “Maybe I can help. I’m a vet,” she gamely offers. In between the explosions, a few kids rescued by the marines wail, whimper and bravely nod their heads and bite their lips on demand.
The rest of the characters in the film — the oorahing, high-fiving, rappelling meatheads that make up Eckhart’s squad — are mostly so interchangeable that it’s hard to tell what’s happening to whom during its many action sequences, and even harder to care. The actual FX set pieces are lavishly produced, but they’re still poorly done. They’re bloodless imitations of the carefully constructed scenes they crib from Black Hawk and Private Ryan.
Battle: Los Angeles trailer (via YouTube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWPkJD0YHeM
There’s plenty of movement on screen, but not much meaning. Action scenes with so much camera shake and so many fast cuts are just annoying. They don’t immerse you in the chaos of the battle, but simple serve to confuse. Creature design is also lacklustre — the vaguely insectoid aliens here to steal Earth’s water for their war machines are too indistinctive to be the things of nightmares.
There is a subtext to Battle: Los Angeles, though it is as unintentional as the few moments of humour the film provides. There is a dwindling squad of true artists left in Hollywood fighting bravely to fend off an invasion of artless CGI, soulless storytelling and carefully focus-grouped moviemaking. So far, the audience is losing. — Lance Harris, TechCentral
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