Battle: Los Angeles

Introduction

There's nothing more staple in the sci-fi genre than alien invasion films. Generally though it either starts with a small incursion or the mysterious appearance before the big bang happens at the end of act one. Not so for Battle Los Angeles where it all kicks off from the first frame.

Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is a marine veteran who realises that it's time to hang up his boots after a rather eventful last posting to Afghanistan. His superiors don't particularly want him to go but his last combat action saw him lose all his men with him as the only survivor, and word is rife amongst the enlisted men that Nantz got them all killed.

His timing, however, sucks. Nantz hasn't quite finished his last assignment to make his latest squad of recruits combat ready when the world is stunned by a massive alien invasion. Objects initially thought to be meteorites are hitting the coastlines of 12 major cities around the world and scores of alien warriors are strolling out of the sea and destroying everything in sight.

Nantz is given the job of nannying a rookie Lieutenant and his squad, and they're all sent on a rescue mission to a police station to rescue some civilians holed up there. Their mission is time critical and they must get out of the area before it is carpet bombed in the hope of destroying all the aliens within the area. Picking up an Air Force tech (Michelle Rodriguez) along the way, the squad find themselves cut off from help and in the middle of a huge firefight that will decimate their numbers, but could also provide an important clue as to how to defeat the enemy…

Picture/Sound

As you would expect, superb picture on the blu-ray with the mass of CGI looking as good as anything I've seen so far, there is an awful lot of it alongside more traditional effects such as squibs, explosions, etc. The picture is also gritty and dirty as you would expect from the documentary style that this is filmed in.

Surround speakers get a pretty good work out and the sound design is pretty good, with plenty of gun fire to keep you happy.

Extras

Lots, well enough anyway, of mini featurettes that take you either behind the characters or behind the scenes of the film. There's also a Command Control feature that allows you access to artwork, interviews, etc whilst you watch the film that rather good if similar to many others of the same ilk.

Overall

Battle Los Angeles got some rather mixed reviews upon release, I suspect that was because the film wasn't quite what people expected. I suspect a lot of people were looking at an Independence Day Part II but instead got Black Hawk Down with aliens. Normally the military suck during alien invasions (unless you're Will Smith) with geeky civilians being the guys who save the day and then get the girl. Here we just follow a squad of marines on a relatively simple search and rescue mission in a combat situation against the bad guys from outer space.

It does borrow hugely from both Black Hawk Down and The Hurt Locker in both looks and style, the latter mainly for the gritty documentary style look to the film whilst the constant action is pure Black Hawk Down. And it works superbly, as long as you liked that film and can stomach almost constant action with very few pauses to catch your breath. One of the few pauses that doesn't really work too well is the obligatory death scene where final words are said, the baton is passed and responsibilities are reminded and sworn on, as enshrined in movie law. It's brief, thankfully, although it's unlikely to have happened in a real situation - I wasn't keen on it, but it was only a minor niggle.

What I like about this film really is its simplicity. You get no real information on the aliens, what they're up to (other than guess work by talking heads on background TV screens) or why. It's just a straight forward invasion with a military response to it, no grand scheme or attack, just a small squad of soldiers trying to rescue some civilians. That adds a layer of mystery to the whole thing and you can kind of make up your own mind, but you have to wait for the infrequent pauses in the action before you can attempt to think about it at all. Yes in the end it does have it's ID4 payoff, but it feels more like the climax to Saving Private Ryan, and it's a purely military solution rather than high tech.

This style of film won't work so much for those who like things like character development or grandiose story arcs, but I was rather impressed with the whole thing and it really did feel like you were placed in the middle of a rather large but self contained war.

Recommended.