A movie that is both exciting, entertaining & awful at the same time...
Cast
Aaron Eckhart - Sgt. Michael Nantz
Ramon Rodriguez - 2nd Lt. William Martinez
Cory Hardrict - Cpl. Jason Lockett
Gino Anthony Pesi - Cpl. Nick Stavrou
Ne-Yo - Cpl. Kevin "Specks" Harris
James Hiroyuki Liao - LCpl. Steven Mottola
Bridget Moynahan - Michele
Noel Fisher - Pfc. Shaun Lenihan
Adetokumboh M'Cormack - Corpsman Jibril Adukwu
Bryce Cass - Hector Rincon (son of Joe Rincon)
Michael Peña - Joe Rincon (father of Hector Rincon)
Joey King - Kirsten
Michelle Rodriguez - TSgt. Elena Santos
WARNING: This review WILL contain spoilers
I always love a movie that involves aliens, large explosions and the possible end of humanity, so naturally I was excited about this movie. I loved this film & hated it at the same time.
To summarize the plot: Aliens out of nowhere invade Los Angeles and other major cities around the world, killing all humans. Just when all hope was lost, a small group of Marines fight back and push the alien forces back. Throw in some explosions, cheesy motivational speeches, explosions, conflicts between soldiers, explosions, bonding of friendships, oh, and explosions & you got yourself a movie.
Cue lot's of spoilers...
Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz (Eckhart) is handing in his papers to leave the military for good. Between his age and an incident overseas (he led his team in a dangerous zone, allowing enemy forces to kill a lot of his men, so he feels guilty), he is ready to move on. Just as he is about to leave, the military learns that the supposed meteors falling towards Earth are slowing down in the atmosphere, the US Government prepares for the worst. Just like that, Nantz is brought right back in.
This guy feels his pain...
Alien forces are invading, killing everyone and blowing everything up. Nantz and his crew are told by their commander that they need to rescue civilians in a Police station (guess where....) right in the middle of the conflict zone. After injuring one of the aliens, they learn the weak point of these indestructible creatures are their chest, right where the heart is (WOW!). Nantz and his team fight back, take down an alien command ship and tell the world how to "bring those sons of a bitches down"...
Seem familiar, right?
Let's start with the good news about this movie. First, lot's of explosions (I cannot comprehend just how much shit blows up in this movie). You wanna see a film where there are guns, bombs & shit exploding everywhere, this is the film for you. The entire film is 15 minutes of talk, an hour & 20 minutes of explosions.
Another great thing about this film is the special effects. The ships look awesome and the aliens look cool too. With everything pretty much blowing up at one point in the film, the special effects team did a fantastic job at making it look realistic.
Now it's starts to go all wrong, and I start with Aaron Eckhart. His pretty good acting job went to shit when he tried to pull a Bill Pullman and give a motivational speech right as when all hope was lost and everyone was ready to throw in the towel.
Yep, just like this.
That, and Nantz's crew learned about his incident overseas that got his men killed, one of the men being the brother of Jason Lockett (Hardrict). Can you say, "awkward"?
Another bad thing about this film, to much explosions. I like a lot of stuff blowing up, but this was just simply to much for me. Even Michael Bay would have a problem with how much shit blew up in this movie.
Another bad thing, YOU DON'T SEE THE ALIENS FACES! At least in other alien invasion films you get to see inside of their ship, they talk, etc. Not in this film. You see the top of their head and their body, which is body armor and weapons welded to their skin. I was very disappointed about that.
The biggest complaint I have about this film is the film doesn't end with the aliens dying, humans losing the war, some mystical being killing everything, NOTHING! The film ends with Sgt. Nantz saying "Now let's take back Los Angeles", while a helicopter carrying him and his crew fly towards a destructed downtown Los Angeles with human & alien forces fighting in the background. It's obvious they are gonna make a sequel to this film, but do they have to make it so obvious with this ending?
SUMMARY: Battle: Lost Angeles is a film you go see for entertainment. If your looking for brilliant acting, look elsewhere. However, if you like non stop action with tons of explosions and gun fights, this is a perfect film for you. This film isn't for everyone. You will either love it or hate it.
My Rating: 6/10
Written by: Hammy
Twitter: @BrainstuHammy
