Review Guy Online- Battle: Los Angeles(2011)

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Review

There are times that an action film such as this fails in its main objective and that is to bring us action. Battle: Los Angeles succeeds in this with a bang, but also adds something that makes films such as these great and that ingredient is the emotional attachment to the characters we are watching.

The film starts out with an alien attack-taking place, and then quickly falls into the backstory of the men we will be following. We learn a little of each of the marines life and the circumstances that have brought them here. The director, Jonathan Liesbesman, attempts to show the imperfectness of humankind by these backstories, and it is a nice touch that makes the story have a bit of richness to it before the story transitions to the heroism that undoubtedly is about to take place. In the end, all of these marines’ fallacies have to be put to the wayside because there is a war going on, and it is against overwhelming odds.

The focus of the film is on Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart who played Harvey Dent in the 2008 version of Batman) who has just returned from a campaign where he has had a traumatic experience. His service to his country is about to come to an end, and he does not know in what direction his life is about to go. Like a good marine, all doubts are put aside when duty calls and he falls in line to give guidance and support to rookie 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez).

The soldiers surrounding him question Sergeant Nantz’s heart and the Lieutenant questions his reasons for being there, but they are all Marines with a job to do. It does not take long for the aliens to hit the fan, and our unknowing heroes go into action to save us all.

The action fills most of the almost two-hour film with aliens that have not come to play nicely. They bring out their own big impressive alien guns, and the machismo fills the air like gunfire. In the film, after a truly heroic sequence that pushes the limits of one of the marines, one of his fellow marines ask another, “Who’s John Wayne?” sarcastically. That character type is what this film tries to emulate, and it does a good job of making you feel as if you are watching a film cast in that dye.

In all Battle: Los Angeles is a testament to the sacrifice that our armed service members make to our country through every type of crisis. This time it is an alien attack, but in the framework of this film, you can feel the emotion of the things they are doing now. Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locales are injected into this film. So much so that you feel the sacrifice that these men are making, and realize that, there are men (and women) who risk all to protect the sanctity of our freedom. Like the marines in the movie, I will end this review with a big “Hurrah”. Do not miss this one!