Review - Battle: Los Angeles

Released right on the tail of the disaster that was Skyline, Battle: Los Angeles had me wary. Hollywood seems dedicated to draining every ounce of credibility out of the science fiction genre of film, repeatedly releasing medium budget, b-list acted, heartless movies that do nothing but retread the same ground in an increasingly sloppy way. Thankfully, Battle: LA manages to escape the fate that so many other Sci-Fi movies resign themselves to, telling a familiar story in a rather unique way. It has its few failures, but overall, remains an enjoyable ride. Best of all, it has heart.

The movie follows a group of Marines sent into whats left of inner-city Los Angeles to extract a group of survivors who have taken refuge in an abandoned police station. Once they have the survivors in tow, they must fight thier way back to the extraction point before the airforce levels what is left of Los Angeles, in an attempt to exterminate the otherworldly invaders. Shot entirely from a shaky eye-level camera and focusing only on this one squad of marines, the film strives to be a science fiction Saving Private Ryan - and mostly succeeds.

This effort to produce a gritty, action driven, alien movie is what sets this film apart from the crowd. The director has taken most of the sci-fi cliches and gotten rid of them. The director doesn't relish in the wide scale destruction of the city, which may disappoint some people, and instead chooses to point the lens almost entirely at the characters. The few moments in which the camera does pan back to reveal the devastated city of Los Angels are well done, though, and can be pretty awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately, in expelling the typical alien movie cliches, it brings in some war-movie cliches. The dialouge, usually decent, can get to be down right cheesy. A particular heart-felt exchange of words midway through the movie, as the marines cope with the death of a civilian, will make your stomache churn. On top of this, the film fails to really delve into any of the characters or make them more than one-dimensional, gun-firing, chess pieces that exist solely to move the plot along. Aaron Eckhardt, as the main character, being the one exception to this. He hogs up most of the screen time and reveals his troubled back history in bits of dialogue throughout the film. This is a huge drawback, because, at times, the movie attempts to be more than just an action flick. There are overdrawn conversational scenes that are supposed to make you feel something, but they don't work, because the writer has failed to make anyone care about the characters. You find yourself struggling through these scenes and waiting for the killing to begin again.

Don't get me wrong - this movie isn't bad. Going into this, I wasn't expecting an emotional and character driven film. It's an action movie first and foremost, and the movie is loaded with action. On this front, it succeeds. This was a refreshing take on the sci-fi genre and it was nice to see it done in capable hands. The director took this seriously and it shows.

B+

-Ian