Yesterday I watched Battle Los Angeles. The Film follows follows a platoon of U.S. Marines during a global alien invasion, who are joined by an Airman and some Army infantry. The events of the film are inspired by the Battle of Los Angeles, a supposed World War II air raid of the city which turned out to be a false alarm caused by several unidentified objects. The film itself didn't receive the best reviews in the world as its said that the action in the film is relentless. Personally I enjoy a good bit of action, and saying this film doesn't lack any is an understatement so this could already be a problem for some people. From about 20 minutes in the action started and didn't stop until the credits started. I blabbered about being in the mood for films in my last review and I was right as I was totally in the zone and loved all this action.
Its important for anybody considering watching this that it isn't purely a Sci Fi film. Its a War Film that just so happens to have aliens. The aliens don't play a vital role in the story as in my opinion the film could be easily modified so Humans were the enemies. The aliens had spaceships- use Jets. The aliens had big rocket launchers- rockets can be fired by humans. The aliens could only die shot in a certain part of the body- The heart or Head? Keeping this in mind I'm not a big fan of war films and probably wouldn't have gone to see it and as alien based films come. I defiantly preferred it to Paul.
The film took time to introduce all of the marine characters and introduced all of them so they were all likeable characters that could be empathized with. I also liked this because there are alot of Action or War films in which the audience can pretty much tell who and in what order the characters will die in, but I had no idea, so this was a plus for me.
The pacing was a bit irritating to say the least. At times everything was going quite slowly with the platoon being stuck in a confined space for ages but at other times the action was quickly sprung onto the audience like a fly swat on a bluebottle. Take for example just before the finale the surviving soldiers jump out the chopper in the space of 60 secs and kept the action going for another 20 minutes. It seemed like the director said "oh crap, we've got a bout 2 days of shooting time to finish this finale, Just cut it down completely."
The ultimate conclusion annoyed me on 2 levels (which i don't really want to spoil) It just so happens that while L.A is saved that means that any of the 50 odd other cities stand a chance while the final thing the platoon do before the credits is very unrealistic. Watch it to find out what I mean.
I did enjoy this film, the content was good but the way it was put together was a bit naff.
7/10
Tip- Remember its a War film with Aliens not the other way round.
Its important for anybody considering watching this that it isn't purely a Sci Fi film. Its a War Film that just so happens to have aliens. The aliens don't play a vital role in the story as in my opinion the film could be easily modified so Humans were the enemies. The aliens had spaceships- use Jets. The aliens had big rocket launchers- rockets can be fired by humans. The aliens could only die shot in a certain part of the body- The heart or Head? Keeping this in mind I'm not a big fan of war films and probably wouldn't have gone to see it and as alien based films come. I defiantly preferred it to Paul.
The pacing was a bit irritating to say the least. At times everything was going quite slowly with the platoon being stuck in a confined space for ages but at other times the action was quickly sprung onto the audience like a fly swat on a bluebottle. Take for example just before the finale the surviving soldiers jump out the chopper in the space of 60 secs and kept the action going for another 20 minutes. It seemed like the director said "oh crap, we've got a bout 2 days of shooting time to finish this finale, Just cut it down completely."
The ultimate conclusion annoyed me on 2 levels (which i don't really want to spoil) It just so happens that while L.A is saved that means that any of the 50 odd other cities stand a chance while the final thing the platoon do before the credits is very unrealistic. Watch it to find out what I mean.
I did enjoy this film, the content was good but the way it was put together was a bit naff.
7/10
Tip- Remember its a War film with Aliens not the other way round.
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