Battle: Los Angeles

Synopsis:

Battle: Los Angeles follows a group of US Marines during an alien invasion. It is presented real-time and from the Grunts perspective. 

If you had to describe Battle: Los Angles in one word it would be clichéd. Which is a shame, because despite the obvious and many flaws of this film, there is some potential here, but we only see it in glimpses where it is interspersed with moronic, predictable, drivel.

There are clearly nods to films such as Independence Day, Jarhead, Predator and the like but ‘as bad as Skyline’ is, I’m sure, not something the makers of Battle: Los Angles will have aspired too, but that is the sort of comment that is heard muttered in frustrated tones as the credits role. It’s not as bad as Skyline (which was awful) and the box office seems to bear that out. The acting is over the top dramatic but passable, the cinematography is nice, some of the special effects are very impressive and the Tony Scott esque action sequences are actually rather good. There’s just not enough of them. There are times when you think it might have turned a corner when you’re given glimpses for 10 or 15 minutes of a Generation Kill/ Call Of Duty style operation, but then you’ll be sucked right back into Cliché World with a rousing the troops speech for example. The first half hour should have just been cut, no questions. It’s obviously supposed to give some character background but all it does is serve every cliché and stereotype going on a platter. There’s the retiring Staff Sergeant on his last day, the young buck about to command his first mission, there’s the guy about to get married, one with a pregnant wife, the virgin who just can’t get killed before he’s lost it etc etc (insert your own stereotype here). There’s even the classic line ‘I’m not leaving you behind’ and the ‘Give this to my wife’ letter. I couldn’t actually list all the clichés in this film here because reviews aren’t supposed to be that long.