Review of Battle: Los Angeles (2011) by Jason E — 21 Oct 2012

Well, well, well. Buckle up your safety belt and hang your brains in the cloakroom: its nothing but blasting, shooting and explosions, but it is nonstop action. I mean it. I have never seen such a film before. You got a movie with nothing but war.

This is a war movie, plain and simple. The effects are well done. Too bad the lines are a bit corny, some subliminal stuff is a bit questionable, and the scifi-part is a bit too superficial. But it is entertaining, full of shooting and running and explosions. Again, too bad that the plot is a bit too simplistic. But then again, its simple because they show people in war, shooting at the attacker and defending their lives, families and country. The tragic factor didnt quite work as well as supposedly intended: it ended up slightly corny, although I am not quite sure why. I dont think it was the actors, it looked somehow..too staged. I think they should have stuck more to just the already dramatic shooting and skip the attempted extra drama.

I did look for a bit more depth somewhere in the story. It would have been interesting to know a bit more about the attackers, such as why the aliens used simillar weaponry as humans, why they needed liquid water as fuel, where they came from and so on. A comparison to Districk 9 is obvious. This film does not explain half as much about the aliens, but then again, no explanations are needed with this movie. However, should a sequel appear, there are two conditions it will in my view need to be successful: 1) Some more background on the aliens is needed for the story to gain a bit more depth thus calling for some interest of those who are into more than just blasting, 2) more complex of a story - this straightforward blasting and going somewhere is simply not enough for a second film, unless it has either some special and really cool element that this film didnt have or some special point of view, perhaps.

There is also one scene very close to the ending, where Michelle Rodriquez has a line where she has to shoot one of the aliens close range repeatedly with her machine gun before getting killed, and after managing at last to kill the alien she kicks him and shouts "That hurt!". I thought that spunk and attitude looked hot. Reminded me a bit of Vasquez in Aliens. The film does also have exciting moments and suspense. Can't quite say which was more abundant in the air: bullets, or testosterone! Trembling hernias, I liked it! And go to sit in the front row or big enough theatre to feel how the all the blasts move your seat up and down, it reall adds to the effect!