Battle: Los Angeles Review (Pros & Cons)

Thinking far back to my early childhood years of watching retro science fiction movies like War of the Worlds, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and several other alien invasion classics, I've had this deep geeky desire in seeing what I'd call "the ultimate alien invasion movie" One that terrifies, dazzles, and leaves the audience in a state of jaw dropping excitement throughout. The type of visual spectacle that would cause an entire theater to yell out in celebration like a a great action movie would deliver coupled with the type of effective horror movie scares that would cause the same room to erupt in screams. This is something that I've always thought about (and one of the many reasons that I wanted to initially become a filmmaker in order to bring this creation to life). Considering that I still to have yet seen a movie that completely satisfied on all accounts that I mentioned, there have been a few titles that successfully came close in many regards. Here enters Battle: Los Angeles throwing its hat into the ring amongst a heavily crowded market. So, how does it stack up?

Delivers As Promised

This movie pitched itself as an epic alien invasion war movie being shown primarily from the military point of view as opposed to the traditional civilian family heavy perspective. And with that sensibility, I thought the movie did a really solid job at immersing me in the mindset of a group of marines just doing their typical line of duty while trying to adjust to a completely foreign enemy. It certainly made for a constantly thrilling and adrenaline pumping experience throughout. Now with any alien invasion premise being at the center of a story, there's a certain visual expectation immediately injected with genre fans. This is especially considered as the quality of special FX improve overtime and new titles push the boundaries creating memorable scenes for film enthusiasts to gush over for years. And although I wouldn’t consider any particular scene in Battle: Los Angeles to be “iconic sci-fi cinema” worthy, there are some occasionally awesome sci-fi/action imagery to soak in.

Primarily anytime we get to look to the skies during the invasion, there's a great visual storytelling element of the larger battle at play displaying these massive circular explosions littered throughout alongside threatening looking alien ships. In showing these cool aerial details every now and then, the movie perfectly alludes to Earth's military force being gradually annihilated imbuing a strong high stakes sense of dread and tension. My only nitpick here is that I really wished we got to see more of these segments extended to add on to the overall spectacle value. After all, this is a war movie, so showing as much of this global threat as possible would've only increased the scope and awe inspiring visual experience.

Following Soldiers At War

The team of marine trainees that we follow throughout the movie never really got on my nerves too much and is shown to be competent enough considering the crazy situation at hand. Why do I emphasize this? There are several of these types of movies where the audience follows a team of specialists of some kind in a fantastical situation where the characters are basically just walking cliches with some having highly distracting personalities. What's made even worst is when these supposedly highly trained individuals would make the types of stupid mistakes that any normal inexperienced individual would clearly avoid. With this particular team in Battle: LA, I found myself legitimately engaged with their mission and team dynamic and didn't question too much how they got in their positions and what their strategy was in handling their mission(s). Something else that I thought was actually kinda refreshing was how the alien threat itself stood apart from its predecessors in the film genre. 

The design was pretty decent overall and the visual FX were solid, but what I eventually appreciated a lot was the fact that they were vulnerable enough to get hurt by our weapons while simultaneously being equipped with advanced weaponry. There was something about that balance that allowed for the movie to feel less like an invasion/survival movie which we’ve had countless examples of and more like...well an actual battle. The scenarios are tense and the aliens are legitimately threatening with their tech, but they never come ass as being entirely invincible. Because of this, the action segments feel even more thrilling because there’s an actual fight taking place as opposed to just seeing people running for their lives. Again, this is a war movie after all.  

In This Case, "More Is More"

As simple as this may be for a nitpick, it’s really the only major one that I had after I left the theaters with Battle: LA. I’m not sure what the budget was for this movie, but despite them showing off quite a bit of action and spectacle, I found myself wishing I’d get more. Just a few more extended scenes of the wider scope of the alien invasion in action would’ve really connected the stakes of the threat even more effectively. More scenes with the aliens themselves doing something that surprises our hero with their tech or battle sensibilities would've added even more variety to the action involved. It's a funny line to cross when the biggest complaint is "I want more" as it can easily be taken as both a flaw of the movie or a huge compliment. In this case, it's a bit of both. Where some movies call for a "less is more" approach to allow audiences to connect with a certain element without the distractions of too much spectacle, I feel Battle: Los Angeles had every reason to inject as much visual appeal as possible adding to the impact of the experience. 

Rating: 8/10