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.
