You’ve all seen this movie before. No, literally, even if you haven’t seen Battle: Los Angeles specifically, you have seen this movie before. Sometimes called Independence Day, sometimes War of the Worlds, either way, you get the point.
Battle: Los Angeles is little more than your average ‘aliens invade and we totally underestimate them’ action flick, although it makes itself unique by applying the Black Hawk Down ambush approach very early in the movie. The film opens with the retirement from the Marine Corps of Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) who, it is insinuated, had a difficult and infamous occurrence during his last tour of duty. Naturally, the imminent collision of a number of ‘asteroids’ turns out to be much more than that, and Nantz is forced back into active duty against the invading alien foe.
The rest of the movie is an action chronicle that is the embodiment of average. Stuff blows up, people shoot and are shot at, good guys die, bad guys die, the obligatory ‘combat situation eerily similar to the infamous one that haunts the protagonist’ pops up for Nantz, and there’s even enough time to drop hints at an emotional bond between Nantz and Michelle (Bridget Moynahan), a random civilian that the Marines are charged with protecting.
Considering that Christopher Bertolini wrote the movie, and that he also wrote The General’s Daughter, I find it fair to criticize the dull plot. The action scenes are decent, and there’s nothing wrong with hitting up Battle: Los Angeles on Netflix or Red Box, especially if you have a good sized TV and serviceable home theater equipment. If you want to be entertained for two hours, this movie delivers. Just don’t expect much more than that.
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