Battle: Los Angeles
It’s quite surprising that no one tried to emulate “Saving Private Ryan” or “Black Hawk Down” earlier in making an alien invasion movie. Sure, you have “Cloverfield,” “District 9” (technically NOT an alien invasion, but still), and Spielberg’s own “War of the Worlds” that have used the handheld camera approach to the action, but those films all played by the rules of the genre when all was said and done. “Battle: Los Angeles” plays by those rules as well (I mean, really, is it so surprising that man finds a way to defeat the aliens at this point?), but does so with a visual style that lacks some of the clarity of “Ryan” or “Down” but doesn’t skimp on excitement. It’s a damn effective thriller.
The setup grabs us immediately, as the action has already begun when the film starts. We will get some setup as the filmmakers turn back the clock to the day of the first sightings of what are thought to be meteors crashing to the coasts of all Earth’s continents. It’s during these opening moments we are introduced to some of the Marines we will follow into battle, including: the weathered Sgt. Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), who is ready to hang it up after a tour in Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of two of his soldiers; 2nd Lt. Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez), who will have his first command and has a loving wife waiting for him at home; and Cpl. Lockett (Cory Hardrict), whose brother was one of the soldiers killed in Nantz’s last mission. So many names and faces go by in these early moments it will be tough to keep track of many of them, especially once we’re thrown into the shit with this company after the aliens begin to wreak havoc in downtown L.A.. Their mission is to get to a police station where some civilians, including a father (played by Michael Pena) and son as well as a vet (Bridget Moynahan) looking after her sister’s children, are trapped and get them out before an air strike levels the Santa Monica area.
The above paragraph is the nuts-and-bolts of Chris Bertolini’s formulaic but compelling screenplay. One of the film’s strengths is its disinterest in the alien’s motivations for their attack on Earth; although we are given the usual rigmarole from television talking heads about colonization for global resources that will be familiar to anyone who has watched “Independence Day” and “War of the Worlds,” Bertolini and director Jonathan Liebesman are more interested in the military defense that is mobilized in response to the threat. This is not a bad thing; in fact, I would argue it is the best reason for “Battle: L.A.’s” existence at all. Is it really that exciting anymore to just watch people running away from alien machines before someone comes up with exactly the right solution (be it the computer virus in “ID-4” or the God-sent common cold in “War of the Worlds”)? Even when the handheld “shaky cam” approach Libesman employs gets a little too chaotic, what keeps us engaged is the “on the ground” perspective we get as we follow these soldiers into battle. It’s a rousing idea that results in an exciting and emotional human drama. Not that emotional mind you (the aliens are basically targets from a video game), but the actors (especially Eckhart, Pena, and Michelle Rodriguez as a tough-as-nails Air Force specialist, all of whom are over-qualified for duty in this film) make us care about the human toll of this particular war of the worlds, which is something that isn’t really easy to say about films like this. They also pay tribute to real soldiers by taking their roles (and what being a Marine means) seriously. That isn’t easy to say about most films of this ilk, either. I’m glad I can say it about this movie. I like to be able to say it about more in the future.
