Battle Los Angeles can be quickly summed up as Saving Private Ryan meets Independence Day. While that might seem to be an odd combination of movies, it works very well as a grim and gritty alien invasion movie that avoids the major plot holes that crippled such films as Independence Day and Signs.
Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is a retiring Marine Staff Sergeant that gets sent to help evacuate civilians in Los Angeles. Eckhart's last command ended with the deaths of his entire squad and he has a bad reputation as a result and an inexperienced Lieutenant (Ramon Rodriguez) is in command of the mission. The squad arrives in a devastated Los Angeles and encounters alien troops that are, well alien, and all Hell breaks loose.
The movie does a great job of keeping things simple, understandable, and believable (assuming you are OK with the whole alien invasion thing anyway). The movie is told from the perspective of squad level combat. There are no grand plans to unfold, the President isn't involved (or even mentioned), no new super weapons are in development, no half-ass, tacked-on love story, no gimmicks, no tricks and an ending that is both satisfying and realistic. The combat is intense and dominates the movie while the special effects are fantastic. Battle Los Angeles makes no attempt to understand the aliens and is better for it; they are the bad guys coming to steal Earth's water and kill off humans in the process. There are countless alien invasion films out there, but few are truly good; Battle Los Angeles is on of those few.
Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is a retiring Marine Staff Sergeant that gets sent to help evacuate civilians in Los Angeles. Eckhart's last command ended with the deaths of his entire squad and he has a bad reputation as a result and an inexperienced Lieutenant (Ramon Rodriguez) is in command of the mission. The squad arrives in a devastated Los Angeles and encounters alien troops that are, well alien, and all Hell breaks loose.
The movie does a great job of keeping things simple, understandable, and believable (assuming you are OK with the whole alien invasion thing anyway). The movie is told from the perspective of squad level combat. There are no grand plans to unfold, the President isn't involved (or even mentioned), no new super weapons are in development, no half-ass, tacked-on love story, no gimmicks, no tricks and an ending that is both satisfying and realistic. The combat is intense and dominates the movie while the special effects are fantastic. Battle Los Angeles makes no attempt to understand the aliens and is better for it; they are the bad guys coming to steal Earth's water and kill off humans in the process. There are countless alien invasion films out there, but few are truly good; Battle Los Angeles is on of those few.