Dir. Jonathan Liebesman, USA, 116mins, 2011
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Pena, Bridget Moynahan
Review by Matthew Rodgers
No plot synopsis is needed for this; it has one of those self explanatory titles that say everything you need to know. Brace yourself. The sentient ships crashing into the Los Angeles landscape intent on the destruction of LaLaLand don’t stand a chance impact wise against the litany of B-Movie clichés that make up Jonathan Liebesman’s “District 9 Hours Long” movie; shaky handed war veterans, a young rookie yet to see battle, who may as well have a target painted onto his forehead, a grunt who is about to get married, yet strangely never makes any further reference to her existence after the set-up, a staff sergeant with a shady “leave no man behind” policy, and that staple of flying saucer fights, a dog! It all reads like a potentially great Alien Invasion drinking game – an activity which would increase the viewing experience ten-fold.
Similar in style and structure to Ridley Scott’s concrete jungle Somalia smackdown, Black Hawk Down, this also suffers from the same flaws; namely that there is a complete lack of focus or depth behind the cardboard cut out characters. Dropped straight into the action, we are not afforded the luxury of getting to know any of the protagonists with whom we’re asked to spend the remainder of the movie, bar a Michael Bay style montage depicting the 24 hours prior to the invasion, and the result is that you couldn’t really care less about them.
The shonky script doesn’t help, the formula for which is – “God Dammit” BOOM! “Pull yourself together” BOOM! “Dammit” BOOM! Repeat for two tediously long hours. Interest could be gained from attempting to spot something, ANYTHING, original amongst the carnage. The aliens are a weird cross-breed between the prawns from District 9 and the Lost in Space robot, and the “humans save the day” finale (c’mon, that’s hardly a spoiler! Did I mention that this was riddled with cliché?) is lifted, nay copied from the superior in every way Independence Day.
The dialogue also clunks louder than the vehicular battering taking place in glorious but repetitive CGI. It’s as if every actor has a clause in his or her contract, which stipulates that they must perform a rally cry accompanied by a crescendo building orchestra, none of which do anything to the hairs on the back of the neck.
Battle: Los Angeles is all brawn and no brain, despite a solid, if completely over-earnest performance from the bankable Aaron Eckhart. You’d do better to rent District 9, re-visit Independence Day. The ID4 Invasion, or wait for the DVD release of the magnificent Gareth Edwards movie Monsters, because they all did this same thing so much classier.
