Battle: Los Angeles

[Man in Black]

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)




Tagline: None

Plot Outline: A Marine Staff Sergeant who has just had his retirement approved goes back into the line of duty in order to assist a 2nd Lieutenant and his platoon as they fight to reclaim the city of Los Angeles from alien invaders.

[Man in Black]

This is one of the harder films for me to come up with a grade. I settled on an 8.5 which is about as much as this one could have got from me - it nailed it's dive perfectly but the degree of difficulty was only an 8.5.

The story is tight, real tight, and very simple. For a big budget block buster the plot is surprisingly character driven.

I've read several of the reviews for Battle LA and I'm not sure what many of the authors are wanting from this movie. The actors are believable and I do care about them all. I'm not sure if these critics would think the film was better if the wall to wall action was paused just long enough for Marlon Brando or Laurence Olivier to deliver an Oscar worthy, inspiring monologue. If that's what you are looking for then the tickets to see King's Speech are the same price.

In my opinion this is Aaron Eckhart's coming out party. He's as good as Leo in Inception and as captivating as Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark... and a notch above Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne. Eckhart delivers a believable, aging hero that has his issues but manages to scrape up enough effort to give his squad a chance at breathing another breath. By the end of the film I would have followed him into battle and at one point I had to stop myself from cheering him out loud.

Battle LA is gritty and frighteningly realistic. If it wasn't for the fact that aliens are the enemy - this could be another classic war movie... though it is better than Black Hawk Down to which it has been compared. As it was obviously set up to introduce a franchise... I'll eagerly await the next installment.

[Jason]

I've heard BAD things about this film. But I would probably like it. Wouldn't be the first time I disagree with a review like that.

Inception, man, I just couldn't get into the film. The effects were phenomenal, but that's about all I enjoyed.
Maybe I should give it a rewatch.
I just watched The Dark Knight a few days ago. My original viewing (in theaters), I didn't like Bale's performance much. But upon watching again, it was fantastic. The smoker disguised voice really got to me when I first saw it. It still bugged me, but judging his performance, it was excellent. No Tony Stark, though. ;D

[Man in Black]

I liked Batman Begins much better, but I did like Dark Knight. I have nothing against Bale's performance but I agree with you Downey's Stark was better. Eckhart was not the same kind of character in Battle LA.. but the quality is in that range... he is awesome. And at least most of the critics agree with me there - everyone pretty much loved him in the film.


Sometimes like with Transformers ROTF I just let the critics slide because they are pretty much right about the lame plot and silly jokes. I just watch those for the fanboy stuff - robots, explosions and effects. But with Battle LA I don't get what they are saying at all... it's almost like they wrote the review... then went to see the movie if they saw it at all.

[Jason]

Some people are like that, I bet. Hate a movie before it even comes out.

[Man in Black]

I think they do it all the time. I'm good with it if they just don't like it, but don't make up things to back up your dislike. Just say "It's not my thing." Like I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like King's Speech, that doesn't mean it's not a good movie, it just means it's not my type of film.

Like when you said you didn't get into Avatar all that much. That kind of review or logic makes sense, you didn't go bashing the very essence of the movie. You just gave your opinion on it after you'd seen it. People are going to like and dislike different things. I just hate it when those paid critics bash and bash and bash... they are doing it in an over the top way to get attention... I can tell, I'm a writer, I went to school for it - I'm trained in that dark art

[Jason]

I seem to recall Roger Ebert's review of Silence of the Lambs when it first came out. I saw his review a few years ago, and my memory of it is in bits and pieces. I recall feeling as if he were just looking for things to discredit it. It was just kind of weird and seemed way over the top. It's not something I could ever do, because I don't go into a deep analytical process about my disinterest of a film and what makes it so horrible.

Unless it's the Mist.