"Battle: Los Angeles" Review - Written by Anthony T

Battle: Los Angeles
Year: 2011
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Running Time: 115 Mins









In the mist of all this SXSW coverage here on Film Arcade.net, there are films that being released in theaters. Normally, I would be busy with all of this coverage and expose our readers to the films that are playing at this festival. But after sitting through “Battle: Los Angeles" recently, I needed to get this film out of my system before it haunts me even further.

The concept of the film was based on various documented UFO sighting around the world. But one of these sighting becomes a terrifying reality, when the earth is attacked by unknown forces. Cities around the world begin to fall and hope for mankind begins to fade. Soon the city of Los Angeles becomes the last stand for human kind, as the unknown forces are winning. It’s up to Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his troops to keep Los Angeles from falling, as they will face an enemy like they never seen before. The film also co-stars Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, and Ramon Rodriguez.

I have to congratulate Columbia Pictures for coning me into seeing ” Battle: Los Angeles“, so badly. The trailer looked so good that it warranted me to go to the theater on opening day without reading any reviews for the film. So congratulation for taking my eight bucks of my hard earned and making me interested to the point that I would pay to watch this piece of crap. Now, its my turn to say “This Fu**ing Sucks. “Battle: Los Angeles is an early candidate for Worst Film of 2011.

I don’t know where to begin with film. I mind as well starting with the directing. I don’t know what to say about it, but it was horrible. Jonathan Liebesman's direction is too mind numbing and very out of control. One of the things that makes the direction bad, the action scenes are very chaotic and repetitive. By having action scenes that are fast moving, you have a hard time following the characters during those scenes. It was like, he wanted to make the action scenes so spectacular that it gets you aroused with all the explosions and make you forget about the characters and the story itself. It was like watching a formulaic film, where the effects take over and covers up the mess that the screenwriter did with the script. Maybe Liebesman realized it, after reading the script and didn‘t care. The end result is a film that has repetitive action and uninteresting characters that your not interested in. The other thing that I didn’t like about his direction, the way the performances felt very dull and lifeless. You couldn’t get excited with these characters, as they had no personality to them. I really think Liebesman didn’t care about making the actors bring some personality to the characters. Every character in the film felt like they talking in the same tone and that really made the film boring. But the complaints don’t stop there.

Before I get to the horrific screenplay, this is going personally to Mr. Aaron Eckhart. I might not be a Hollywood insider or play one on TV, but your performance convinced me of one thing. Your not an action star. An action star has to have charisma and someone who gets your adrenaline flowing. Sorry, but you’ve shown none of that here. The performance was very dull and it put me to sleep at times. I can’t get behind a lead character that shown signs on no life or rambles lines in a depressed tone. It did nothing to get me geeked over the material and it make matters much worse for me, as I had to sit there and be bored with your performance. Please, stick to films like “Thank You Not Smoking” or “The Dark Knight” and you’ll have a good career ahead of you. No more trying be like Bruce Willis or Sylvester Stallone, because it doesn’t suit your acting skills.

Now onto my main complaint with this film’s screenplay, which was written by Christopher Bertolini. Let’s start with the lack of character development You don’t have much time to know them. He introduces way too many characters in the first fifteen minutes in the film, which doesn‘t leave a lot of time to know them. If the beginning focuses on two or three characters, then that part of the film might have worked better, instead he introduces seven or eight characters in the opening that was rushed to the point that he didn‘t care about developing any of them. The whole opening of the film gave me the feeling that this going to be a train wreck of a film. The sad thing about it, I was right because it got worse from there. After the brief introduction of the characters, the film really went south. The next hour of the film felt like one continuous action scene with loud explosions and people running around Los Angeles. During the course of that hour, one thing dawned upon me. Who the hell in their right mind green lighted this film. If there was apart of the film could have been rewritten, this part would definitely qualify. Bertolini was only focused on writing scenes with multiple explosions and firefights. It becomes repetitive fifteen minutes from the time the soldiers enter LA to the end of the film. There is rarely any break from the action to explore these characters. That’s what makes this film a complete waste of time and my money. This is the type of screenplay that I expected on Syfy, not on the big screen.

Clearly, the people at Columbia Pictures only cared about making a film with multiple explosions and story. It’s sad to see an interested idea be butchered, by lousy directing and awful screenwriting. There’s only one way to put “Battle: Los Angeles”. A leading favorite for worst film of 2011. Now I feel a lot better, after getting that piece of crap out of my system.

Review Rating: Half a Star