Been quite some time since I had a review up, mostly because there hasn’t been anything I have been interested in since RED. Went to see Battle: Los Angeles this afternoon, and I will give it a solid B+.
Was there a lot of dialogue? Nope. Was the dialogue super awesome? Nope. Was the story line super deep? Nope. But, it was a simple story about an alien invasion of Earth, with dialogue that was brief and made sense in the moment. There was no speechifying, ala Independence Day. Just stuff everyday people, and everyday Marines, would utter.
As for the story line, it goes something like this: Aaron Eckhart plays a 20 year marine who has just turned in his retirement papers, due to stand down after his current crop of Marine trainees are through basic. When the aliens invade, he is tasked to a platoon. They are supposed to simply go into a zone in Santa Monica and search for civilians before…well, see the movie to find out. They fight battles, and work hard to save the civilians. The Marines are treated with respect by the film makers. No silly liberal ‘gung ho” lines, no stupid heroics, and they even mostly act like Marines. They move like Marines, shoot like Marines who know how to use a gun, and have tactics like Marines.
If you do not like shaky cam, stay away. It is done well, though. And this movie is about a small group of people, one platoon and the civilians they encounter, not the aliens. Interpersonal drama on what is a heavy battlefield.
One funny exchange which might have been lost in all the gun play was when Michelle Rodriquez’s character shot an alien and she gets splatter in the face. She says “I got that stuff all over my mouth!” to which another character retorts “you let him do that to you on the first date?”
The ending is most satisfying, and could lead to a sequel. Or not. Either way, everyone, including myself, left the theater quite satisfied.
And Roger Ebert hated it, so, it must be good.
