Battle: Los Angeles

I know, it’s gotten some bad reviews but brother J and son really wanted to see it and I did, too, until I read the reviews (Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 34%). I went anyway and thanks to my exceedingly low expectations I was pleasantly surprised!


Here are my thoughts:

The opening was unnecessary. The movie started in the midst of a battle THEN backtracked 24 hours. If this was a book it would’ve been ok but it was completely unnecessary. I mean, the audience is already there. They bought their tickets, they’re in their seats, and unless the movie utterly sucks they’re not going anywhere.

After the opening battle scenes, the story starts over from 24 hours previously, introducing us to the characters. I would’ve been fine with the movie starting here because in many of those scenes people had their televisions on and the news was talking first about meteors, and then finally about evacuation. One of the last news scenes made it quite evident this was no meteor shower.

The rest of the movie was the characters trying to rescue a few civilians, fight against the aliens and their technology and try to figure out exactly how to take them out. In one scene they do a live vivisection of an alien in order to determine how best to kill them. It wasn’t gross or horrifying but it could’ve been if they’d given the aliens something akin to a face or organs or blood. Instead, each time it was stabbed or cut it bled a clear liquid very similar to water. The other problem was the helicopters. They were all Hueys according to my brother. Not a single Blackhawk. Son said all the Blackhawks were probably in Afghanistan.

The last bad thing was the end, which was a huge rip off of Independence Day. Remember when they figure out how to take the mother ship out? Something very similar happens in this movie.

On the other hand I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie, twisting my hands, wincing, holding myself very still because those things, those aliens were everywhere and there were a lot more of them than the little company of marines trying to save the civilians.

Should you go see it? Well, only if you have $9 to blow and don’t care too much about story or plot because it’s very straightforward. Aliens come, we get our butts kicked until we figure out how to kick their butts, heroes emerge and save the day. It was fun, but not a lot of fun.

Next week it’s the Adjustment Bureau.