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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Good Movies  |  Battle L.A. « previous next »
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Author Topic: Battle L.A.  (Read 4690 times)
wickednick
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« on: March 13, 2011, 05:09:43 AM »

Battle L.A. is not a wholly original take on the Alien invasion genre. It has a lot of cliches and the plot is bones thin, but it is still a likable movie if you go into it realizing that this is not supposed to be Saving Private Ryan with aliens. Battle LA is at its core about war with an unknown enemy. You don't get to see much more than what the soldiers see, most is left up to the imagination, its hectic, jarring and confusing at times, every bit like a real battle.

After seeing the movie and reading the reviews (especially Eberts scathing review of it) I think most critics were not sure what to make of the movie and instead began dismantling it piece by piece to attack its flaws. There are many flaws to this movie, its not perfect, there is little character development or moving bits of acting and story telling, but war isn't like what we often see in the movies. War is simply about killing the enemy and gaining ground and that is what this movie is all about. It takes you right in the middle of a gritty, smokey, loud war zone against an enemy that you know nothing about. There is little time to explore the enemy except in just a few brief scenes, most of the movie is spent moving from one destination to the next while the marines try to protect a group of civilians from the swarm of aliens.

The acting and story in the movie is weak, nobody is winning awards for it. The characters are mostly interchangeable and in the hands of a better director these things cold have been fixed. There are several cliches, especially in the beginning of the movie, that made me grimace; the most notable ones being a scene with a dog, and a guy being scared by a washing machine, but about half way into the movies the cliches lesson a bit and it starts becoming a non stop train of destruction as the Marines move through the city taking on swarms of enemies.

The aliens seem very unique and their weapons and vehicles are equally unique. You can tell a lot of thought went into what kind of weapons and strategy these aliens would use. Its to bad though that we never get a good idea of what these aliens and there weapons look like. Perhaps this was a deliberate attempt by the director to keep these aliens as mysterious as possible and he wanted to save more for a sequel, I don't know for sure. But what you do get is that these aliens and there weapons have seen a lot of action before. Everything looks like it has seen action, its dirty, burnt and looks like it has seen numerous repairs. One of the most original weapons is bipedal heavy weapon operated by a alien soldier. The use of this weapon by the aliens seems pretty intelligent,as they use it for cover.

Over all though I would say don't let the reviews scare you away from this movie. Its a fun movie with plenty of action, little plot and interesting aliens. If there is ever a sequel hopefully the flaws of the first one would be fixed, but for now I suggest go see it and enjoy it for what it is. Heck even my girlfriend liked it and she not a movie person.
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« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2011, 07:02:13 AM »

I've seen the trailer-frankly I'm not usually impressed by big budget sci-fi films lately. But this one looks really cool! My son,of course,went apes**t over it-it's the kind of thing teenage boys would love-mass destruction and lotsa stuff blowing up real good.
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« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2011, 12:03:47 PM »

  I saw it over the weekend. I really liked it at the start. It was set up like on of those old WW2 films, with a variety of stereotypical characters introduced, like the Angry Guy, the Seasoned Vet with a Past, The Green Recruit, The "Doc" character etc. I was hoping I might get some kind of Flying Tigers or Guadalcanal Diary or even  Aerial Gunner vs. aliens. But personal characteristics never came up again in the movie except for Aaron Eckhart's character. I don't mind characters being cannon fodder but it always bugged me when they set up character traits as maybe being important but then never do anything with them.

  There are also some bothersome plot holes, like the fact that the intelligent advanced aliens don't use air cover until after they'ed already landed their ground troops. And there were plenty of missed opportunities for coolness. It seemed kind of low budget too. You never really see a massive invasion force, it's usually just a couple aliens ambling around. I can easily overlook things like this, especially plot holes and low budget, if the movie is entertaining, but this one was run -of-the-mill at best.

  For me this movie came off like a well ordered military action: by the numbers. It's matinee material.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2011, 12:15:26 PM by Hammock Rider » Logged

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« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2011, 09:16:39 AM »

I didn't see it yet, maybe next weekend... I ask... was this better then Skyline?

With that movie all I enjoyed was the US drone battle, music and the nuke.
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akiratubo
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« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2011, 02:06:00 PM »

Do the aliens win?  I'm not too interested in seeing it if the aliens don't win.
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« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2011, 08:20:29 PM »

I quite liked the movie. I would compare it more to Black Hawk Down with aliens.

The movie starts with a quick introduction to most of the Marines. Then the Marines a briefed on their objective and they go out to accomplish it. The rest of the movie follows this small group as they go out to attempt the impossible.

What I really liked about the movie is how it focused on this small group and the information available to them. We get small glimpses a larger conflict, but mostly the movie focuses on small but intense firefights between the aliens and Marines. It's kind of like Gears of War; they even have a Hammer of Dawn (sort of).

I'm not a big fan of people getting bogged down by large details in sci-fi movies. Wondering why the aliens are attacking in this movie is like spending the entirety of Cloverfield wondering where the monster came from. Legitimate questions, but not one either film cares to answer.

Anyway, a gripping military actioner with aliens. I recommend it.

Now, will Battle of Los Angeles with Kel Mitchell be as good? Only time will tell.
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« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2011, 01:09:49 AM »

This one was directed by a South African, Jonathan Liebesman so  Thumbup
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