Obsequiousmelon had his world invaded and was a bit bored by it!

Name of the Film:  World Invasion / Battle LA (depending where you are from!  Why change the title because we are in Hong Kong????)

Starring:  Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez.

When meteorites are headed to the earth everyone stands in awe.  But as it becomes clear that the meteorites are slowing down before impact the army are put on alert and the whole planet becomes a war zone.

Aaron Eckhart is moved, from training future soldiers, back into active service with an already established unit.  Can they get over their personal differences to complete their rescue mission?

Can one unit of american soldiers save the world..?

That last sentence might sound a touch facetious and it is.  That is because this film is nothing new.  I’m not convinced that americans can understand this but I think I speak for most people I know when I say that it is a little galling when we see another film where America saves the world.  Battle LA is directly comparable to Independence day (another film that is badly written where America saves the world in the most improbable and unbelievable way.)

The thing is of course that Independence Day gets by on charisma and a tongue planted firmly in it’s cheek.  Battle LA doesn’t do this.  Instead it tries to be a serious piece of sci-fi.  And that is it’s biggest problem.

Watch Nolan, Aronofsky, Gilliam, Del Toro, Jackson and Spielberg.  The films these people create are works of supreme fantasy always rooted in strongly envisioned and realised characters.  Although their films may not always be successful they are always interesting because they offer something new and help us look at the world with new eyes.

Jonathan Liebesman is not in the same class as the directors I just named.  He is instead more of a Brett Ratner or Paul W. S. Anderson, a workman that can be hired by the studio and will deliver a solid but unspectacular film.  His previous films are Darkness Falls and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the beginning.  Darkness falls has a cool idea but ends up being a run of the mill slasher film and Chainsaw is kept interesting by R. Lee Ermey.

He directs films that are ‘by the numbers.’  

In Battle LA we are presented with ‘cookie cutter’ characters that we have all seen before.  The old sergeant who is past his prime, thrown back into active service.  The soldier leaving his pregnant wife behind.  The soldier that lost his brother recently.  The young soldier that signed up straight out of school who is a virgin... The list goes on. 

So the characters are dull but what of the action?  To continue with the comparisons we can look at Michael Bay.  Say what you like about Michael Bay but he makes everything in his films look good and he consistently makes films that are profitable.  He does this of course by using stereotypes to put his audience at ease and then throws spectacular set pieces at them until you are entertained.  Love him or hate him it works most of the time as far as the wider audience is concerned.

Battle La though comes across as a kind of Michael Bay light, if you will.  The Diet Coke of action movies.  Nothing ever seems very impressive nor involving.  It’s all ok but it lacks that moment where the film elevates itself from bland mediocrity. 

There is a point where the film comes to an interesting resolution when they are picked up by a helicopter and are flying home.  If the film had finished there with the fate of the world left in the balance, if they had gone back and filled up the time with some development of the characters beyond the obvious cliches that they are then this could have become a challenging and interesting sci-fi take on the war movie.

Instead we have a predictable ending where America saves the world from vastly superior aliens.  Even this could have been fun in a daft way but alas like the rest of the film it is let down buy an extremely poor script.  How do the soldiers know that the metal thing in front of them is a control node?  Why have the tactically aware aliens from the beginning of the film started running in tight groups in front of the soldiers gun fire?  Why are the aliens so awesome at anti aircraft fighting but mysteriously so crap at preventing surface to surface missiles?  Why don’t they have a back up control node if their main one is so vulnerable that it can be taken down by 5 soldiers?

The reason for this is because the script is dictated to by where the film makers wanted to go rather than the script’s direction being governed by the characters and their motivations.

It’s strange because there is a good film trying to get out but the one presented is just so banal that I can’t think of a film that I care about less... 

I didn’t hate it, I was just bored by it!

  

Did I enjoy the film?  No.

Would I recommend it to my friends?   No.

Will I buy it on DVD/Blu Ray?  No.

If it was a mate would I let it date my Sister?  No.