It’s getting more and more difficult to make war movies. The Vietnam War has been reimagined countless times; so have the battles of World War II. There’s no one new left to fight — on this planet, anyway. Perhaps that’s why “Battle: Los Angeles” has the Marines taking on a nasty army of aliens. It’s not as if the film explores the nature of these beasts. We don’t learn anything about their way of life or even what sort of lifeforms these are, exactly. We get only a never-explored theory for their invasion. They’re as nameless as a platoon of Germans in an old film about World War I.
| On screen |
| ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ |
| 3 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan |
| Director: Jonathan Liebesman |
| Rated: PG-13 for sustained and intense sequences of war violence and destruction, and for language |
| Running time: 118 minutes |
The focus is mostly on the action, and there’s plenty of it. Sgt. Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) wants out of it, though. He’s just handed in his resignation papers after spending his entire adult life as a Marine. He’s just going to take his boys out for one last training exercise. It turns out to be more than a drill, of course, when UFOs land on Earth, their occupants intent on colonizing every major city — by leveling them.
Nantz is assigned to another platoon, one led by a young lieutenant, Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez). The newbie officer doesn’t like the challenge to his leadership that Nantz’s presence implies. And his men don’t like the stories they’ve heard about how Nantz didn’t bring all the Marines on his last mission home alive. But to vanquish our would-be alien overlords, they’ll all have to learn to live — and fight — together.
So, yes, “Battle: Los Angeles” is, despite its extraterrestrial additions, a standard-issue war flick. It’s a solid one, though. Director Jonathan Liebesman makes good use of the (seemingly ubiquitous these days) shaky cam to make the audience as unsettled as the Marines are. The numerous action sequences are well-shot and well-thought-out. This is an exciting film.
What really makes it watchable, though, is the talented Eckhart. Perhaps the frequent collaborator of playwright-director Neil LaBute is slumming it a bit here, but he deserves a fat paycheck every now and then. He — and a solid supporting cast, including Michelle Rodriguez working intel and Michael Pena as a civilian under threat — makes the film about more than simply unloading a lot of bullets; it’s also about honor, loyalty, trust and all the other great things we associate with our fighters at their best.
