Battle: Los Angeles | B+

One of the biggest and most anticipated blockbuster films of this season is out in theaters. Battle: Los Angeles, a picture about an alien invasion on Earth and its L.A. final front, proves to be a film that is quite worth its hype.

This film focuses on a small group of Marines as they struggle to rescue a group of survivors before the military completely wipes out a portion of Los Angeles. From the beginning, the audience is thrown right into the action. Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, played by Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight), is charged with the task of keeping his men alive, all while keeping his cool when everything around him is going to hell. The film then flashes back to the past to set the backstory of the characters before the arrival of the aliens.

Surprisingly, despite the unreal circumstances of an alien invasion, the filmmakers did an outstanding job grounding the concept in reality as much as possible from the point of view of soldiers and their struggle to survive. Throughout the film, it keeps the dreary, oppressive and gritty feel of a war film by utilizing a powerful and epic orchestral soundtrack, along with amazing scenery. At the same time, the acting for the film is spot-on, especially by the likes of Eckhart, playing the hardened Marine veteran that must deal with his men who initially do not completely trust him. The gritty war concept even extends to the aliens themselves. While the aliens are not developed in terms of character, they do display human-like tactics, motives and even plausible weaponry, as opposed to silly alien blasters. Clearly, a lot of thought was put into the basics.

Of course, the film is not without fault. One major complaint is the shaky camera work during the initial action sequences. While this is done for realism effects, the camera shakes a bit too much to even take in the action properly. Luckily, this problem subsides in later action sequences. In addition, the movie does eventually become quite predictable, but only slightly.

Ironically, the film has a considerably human element to it. While Battle: Los Angeles is by no means an amazing war film, it makes for an outstanding alien invasion film by adding elements seen in war films. This alone is enough to distinguish it from other types of alien invasion films. Hopefully, any ensuing sequels won't ruin what this movie has built up.