In the 1960’s and 1970’s Hollywood was making lots of World War II movies to tell the stories that needed to be told as well as dig up a little patriotism and American pride during the never ending Vietnam War. In the 1980’s World War II movies almost completely stopped and we started getting Vietnam War movies but unlike the earlier movies that want to show patriotism these Vietnam War movies were almost the exact opposite to reflect the views of those in Hollywood who grew up in the anti-war movement. In the 1990’s Saving Private Ryan somewhat kick started interest about the war again. But Hollywood still embraces the anti-patriotism anti-American exceptionalism and so unless your name is Spielberg your WW II movie is either going to be largely ignored or be a block buster but a bad film, ala Pearl Harbor. Now you are asking yourself what the hell does this have to do with a review for Battle Los Angeles. Well the reason why I bring this up is because Hollywood has made a few movies that show that American spirit and patriotism when the planet earth is at war with aliens like in Independence Day and this movie Battle Los Angeles. This movie is a by the numbers World War II patriotic movie but instead of the Americans fighting Germans or Japanese, they are going after aliens that have invaded Earth.
Ssgt. Nantz, played by Aaron Eckhart (I, Frankenstein) has one foot out of the door on his way to retiring from the marines with a storied yet checkered past when he is forced to stay active duty because of the beginnings of what becomes an alien invasion. He is assigned to a unit of men whose 2nd Lieutenant, named Martinez, played by Ramon Rodriguez (Transformers Revenge of the Fallen,) who has been active for one month. What started off as an evacuation mission becomes an all-out battle as the Marines are sent to an overrun police station to get civilians out and back across the line before the Air Force bombs the area.
There are lots of plots holes and standard Hollywood clichés in the film. We have the hero with a checkered past and to one up other clichés one of the members of his unit, Cpl. Lockett, played by Cory Hardrict (Gran Torino,) is the younger brother of a soldier killed under Nantz’s command in Iraq. We have the gung ho Lt. who is woefully inexperienced and gets his men killed because of it. Then of course there is the ability for all of these soldiers to be expert marksmen when they need to be for dramatic affect. The biggest plot hole is that the command and control ship is underground yet the area has building built on top of it yet these ships weren’t planted there before like in the movie War of the Worlds. These are just a few of the things wrong with the movie.
But that being said there are constant acts of heroism in the film that show what men in the military will do for one another. The action is very entertaining and while it is a Hollywood version of the military, the unit’s actions appear to be at least somewhat realistic so the producers took the time to train the actors to carry a gun. I also though they took the time to come up with some realist smart aliens that were not just alien animals like in the movie Aliens. They were smart and that added to the enjoyment of the film. Most of the critics said that the movie was boring unless you were a war nut but I would think that most of those people thought Saving Private Ryan was to Patriotic to be realistic and would probably want to watch an Oliver Stone film that shows us how it’s the Earthlings fault for the invasion. Oh and Eckhart’s character gives a short speech that is more uplifting then the speech given by the President in Independence Day.
Battle: Los Angeles has its flaws but it is definitely a throwback to those old school patriotic war films from the 60’s and 70’s. I own the film because its entertaining and I guess I am a war nut. My only wish is that instead of an alien invasion the producers would have grabbed a book on a unit in World War II. But now a days I will take what patriotism I can get.
[…] unable to fly to any area airport, Sully and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles, played by Aaron Eckhart (Battle: Los Angeles,) both guide the passenger jet into a controlled water landing on the Hudson River in New York […]