Battle: Los Angeles review

Let me get this out of the way right now. Movie critics, I think, love to join each other and bash movies as one. I think it gives them some euphoric feeling because they think that they are “smart” and “elite” because all are saying the same thing.

Well you know what? It makes me sick. Movies that should get great reviews get crap reviews and movies that should get crap reviews get great reviews.

With that out of the way, let’s move on. On Wednesday, I had to pleasure of going to see Battle: Los Angeles with a couple of my friends. No wife, no girlfriends, no nothing. Just the three of us going to watch the movie. And, I’ll say this…It was great. G-R-E-A-T.

As my friend said after walking out, “I really didn’t think I was going to get all that into it, but that was really awesome.”

My other friend pretty much said the same thing.

Here’s the premise of the story. A bunch of these metalloid aliens crash land on Earth and start an invasion. They are here to get out water, but first have to kill all of us—colonization.

Marines are sent in to rescues civilians and kill anyone that they find because they’re going to do a bombing run of LA. That’s cool. Except, out of nowhere, these aliens now have these unmanned drones that are destroying all our aircraft. That sucks, right?

After hours of trying to rescue the civilians, they finally get on a helicopter and are headed to an extraction point. However, it’s decided that, instead, they’re going to find the control center of these aliens to get rid of the drones.

When they do, it turns into an epic fight as surface to surface missiles are launched to destroy the control center.

I was going into the movie describing it as a mix of “Black Hawk Down” and “Independence Day.” I don’t know if that is a completely accurate statement, but I’d say it’s pretty close.

The acting is actually pretty decent and has that rough action feel to it. Other than the beginning where the cameras are all over the place, things start to mellow out—in regard to camera seizures—and we get to really enjoy the movie.

People say there is no story, but I think there is. Aaron Eckert’s character, Sgt. Nantz, is plagued with the fact that he got a couple of his soldiers killed—including one of his current soldier’s brother. And, that is a constant reminder for him. We see him battling this throughout the movie. All along, he wants to be the one to do die and for the others to survive and yet, because the punch line of the joke sucks, he survives.

There are also tinges of ‘anti-colonialism’ in the movie, but the average Western viewer won’t get that. And there’s a major ‘pro-military’ feel to the movie, but patriotism isn’t bad.

Overall, I give the movie a 9/10 for enjoyment. While the story isn’t entirely unique, it was a great two hours spent in the theaters and if that’s what you’re looking for, definitely go and check it out.

 
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