The Movie Review of Battle: Los Angeles
Hollywood has been dishing out films based on alien invasions since long and post Independence day (1996), which was a sheer visual delight in spite being low on characterization and story, we haven’t seen many good films based on alien invasion. Skyline, which was released last year, was a complete letdown but the promos of Battle:Los Angeles showed promise. I went to watch the film with hopes of having a good entertainment of 90 odd minutes. I didn’t have too many hopes from the film but expected it to be better than Skyline. As it turned out, the film was just a bit better than Skyline.
The problem with Battle:Los Angeles is that the movie seems to be a cocktail of 2 genres of movie making – alien films and war films. Elements of alien films have been mixed with that of combat films and there is nothing new in the movie worth remembering once you leave the theater. The predictability and absence of any thing original is the biggest drawback of the film. The movie begins with news of a large no. of meteors moving towards earth rapidly. Aaron Eckhart plays the role of Michael Nantz, a US Marine Staff Sergeant, who is planning to retire. The meteors turn out to be the alien vehicles and pretty soon all the major cities around the world come under intense attack of the extraterrestrial species. Nantz retirement plans go awry as he is ordered to join a new platoon and save few civilians from an area of Los Angeles before the place is bombed by the air force. The rescue mission forms the rest of the story.
There are a no. of loopholes in the script and screenplay is incoherent at many places. The suspense never builds up the way it had in War of the Worlds or Independence Day. There is a plethora of characters too but no one worth remembering as their roles have not been written properly. The dialogues are clichéd’ and boring. The special effects are good but not spectacular. Also the combat scenes have not been filmed very elegantly and often it takes time to understand what’s happening on the screen. Climax of the film does offer a couple of good moments but rest of the film offers nothing new.
I would term this move an average fare. Go for it if you don’t have anything else to do on weekends.
Written by PrateekD
