My Two Cents: Battle Los Angeles

Like I said a few posts ago, I realized my blog doesn’t have to be all about writing.  What a relief that was!  Not that this is my own personal journal for all to see, either, but I do want to start talking more about movies, books, anime (because I’m a sucker for a good Japanese cartoon), and more abstract concepts I sometimes struggle with or think about.

But for now, I want to talk about Battle: Los Angeles.

IMDb Rating: 6.0/10

Metascore: 37/100

I know a lot of people disliked this movie, but I have to admit something right now: I adored it.  That’s right.  Not liked or enjoyed.  Adored.  Why?  In a word?

Plot.

Aliens disguised as falling meteors descend to Earth and start attacking coastal cities all around the world.  A group of Marines, including main character Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), are sent in to a section of Santa Monica to rescue stranded civilians before that area is blown to oblivion in order to keep the aliens at bay.  From there it’s a race against time, an all-out battle for survival that culminates in an epic struggle to recover Los Angeles from these invaders.

Warning: thar be spoilers ahead.

I think what made the plot most interesting to me was the fact that, for once, the aliens had a decent motive, a motive that is explained very clearly in nice tidbits through televisions the Marines pass by as they run from house to house.  Not since Independence Day have I enjoyed aliens more.  Having recently watched the annoying Monsters, in which the aliens’ presence on Earth is barely explained but their biology or motive to expand is never even touched on, I expected the worst from Battle: Los Angeles.  It’s good not to have high hopes for alien movies these days, know what I mean?

Anyway, these aliens are unique.  They want our water, not our land (and the US isn’t particularly special for once and yet there was a lot of patriotism in this movie, which I liked).  It is a great alien motive.  Our planet is 70% water after all.  I considered that brilliant.

The other thing I enjoyed: Meaningful death.  I know that may sound odd, but movies these days tend to kill off random characters without purpose, as if the writer said, “I’ll spin the character bottle and see where it lands.  Then I’ll kill that one off, and maybe the one sitting next to it for the shock factor”.  This movie has a good amount of death, but guess what?  In the chaos of war, people die.  Not everyone but the main character, mind you, but a good amount of the platoon (Squad?  Group? Regiment? What do you call a bunch of beaten-up Marines that kick a lot of alien ass?) dies.  Still, I felt their deaths become validated as the main character grows.  Their deaths weren’t for nothing — how the movies turns out makes it worthwhile, as if the dead are vindicated or avenged.  To me, that’s what makes a good story.  Every move a character makes, every death, every comment has purpose, and this movie held a refreshing amount of that drive.

That and I like that that one female character (played by the badass Michelle Rodriguez) actually lives.  Do you know how rare that is?  I mean really, I hate how often women die in movies–and how pointlessly.

That’s a different topic for a different post.

Seriously though, do go watch this movie.  At best, you’ll adore it.  At worst, you’ll come back going, “Elisa really needs to see a doctor, this movie sucks.”  Either way, I’d put this movie up with some of the best releases this year to date — at least until I go see Green Lantern this weekend.