There’s an old saying “Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one” This couldn’t be more true of all the Battle Los Angeles reviews I’ve seen online. It’s seems to be a mix of positive acclaim, comparing it to Independence day, and comments like this one made by Robert Ebert on his website “Battle Los Angeles is noisy, violent, ugly and stupid, it’s manufacture is a reflection of appalling cynicism on the part of it’s makers” Well that’s nice Mr. Ebert, but then who really cares what you have to say since you think movies like the Assaination of Richard Nixon is a great movie. So with all that out there I thought I’d throw my own review into the mix.

Now if you haven’t seen Battle Los Angeles it’s nothing like Independence Day, which in my opinion went way over the top with American pride. Hey nothing wrong with being American but the rest of the world doesn’t need it shoved in its face. This movie closer to Saving Private Ryan, but with aliens instead of Nazi’s.

The story is simple, borderline too simple actually with about as much of a plot as a video game like Call of Duty. It takes place just before and during the initial hours of an all out alien invasion. The aliens launch coordinated attacks on costal cities around the world in an effort to seize control of the world’s oceans. They form beachheads in cities and shoot everyone on site without a reason or mercy. Zoom into L.A at a forward operating base or F.O.B for short and a squad or marines is dispatched into enemy held territory to rescue civilians caught in the cross fire. 

This is where the story takes a Saving Private Ryan /Call of Duty feel. The rest of the movies focus’ on this squad fighting through the ruins in a desperate attempt to understand and defeat their new enemy. At first they have no idea what their up against and get their assess handed to them by the bucket loads in an ambush. The confusion is further added by the shaky camera angles to give the feel that you’re in the middle of a firefight. You almost want to grab a controller and start blasting aliens while sipping on some soda. 

Eventually the Marines get their mojo back and start figuring out how to kill the aliens that essentially look like hyper intelligent squids with guns stitched to their arms.

The biggest name in this movie is Aaron Eckhart (Two-Face in the last Batman movie) who plays Sgt. Michael Nantz, a 20 year veternen on the verge of leaving the core until the aliens decide to trash L.A. I liked his performance, as a former soldier myself I thought he did a good job and was very convincing.

The other big name you might recognize is Michelle Rodriguez (She was in Machete and the 1st Resident Evil movie……..that one that didn’t suck) as Tsgt. Elena Santos a tough as nails take names and kick ass type, kinda like all the roles she’s in. Probably one of the reasons I like her so much.

Other people to pay attention to are Michael Pena who plays Joe Rincon a trapped civilian trying to save his son from the aliens. And Ramon Rodriguez who plays 2nd Lt. William Martinez.

Lots of action, there are tonnes of firefights between the aliens and Marines. The movie doesn’t waste time with a lame intro it goes straight into the meat of the movie which is an alien war flick. The scenes of L.A being turned into Hell on Earth are very convincing. And it doesn’t turn into some patriotic rant that can easily offend anyone outside of the U.S. It keeps things low key and doesn’t get distracted with the big picture. It also leaves the ending open for a possible sequel.

The aliens look like crap, it looks like they were created on a Monday when the CGI staff was hung over and not into it and too lazy to fix it afterwards. It can be hard to follow what’s going on at points with the camera shaking all over the place. The story is non existent (which is fine for me) but many won’t like that. The dialogue mostly consists of shouting and military acronyms you would hear if you were in training or playing a video game.

Overall the movie is pretty good if you go in expecting some mindless entertainment. If you go in expecting something deep and emotional you’re watching the wrong movie. There’s also a video game available, this isn’t the actual game below just a crappier version, it’s still fun though.