Battle Los Angeles

Battle Los Angeles is boring. This review is going to be boring because it is of Battle Los Angeles and Battle Los Angeles is boring.

A U.S. marine played by Aaron Eckhart is demoted by another marine in an office. His face is zoomed in on for no reason. The camera is shaking. This style of cinematography is a trend in contemporary filmmaking that is sometimes exciting but often annoying. In Battle Los Angeles, it is used throughout the entire film. It's annoying and boring.

A handful of characters are established in the first twenty minutes. Captions are provided, depicting the names of onscreen characters. There is no reason for this.

Characters are affable and obviously written for a young male demographic. There is actually a scene in which marines are loitering at night, and superfluous females and alcoholic beverages abound. One marine is a virgin. He is laughed at. I am suspicious that the film tries to make the point that anyone can join the military, even if you are a virgin. Is Battle Los Angeles military propaganda? This thought is more entertaining than the film.

Combat begins. The rest of the movie consists of shooting, exploding, stabbing and yelling. Mostly the first two. The threat is overwhelmingly powerful and difficult to attack. Realistically, humans would not be able to defend themselves. But we have to sit and watch some U.S. marines make inspirational speeches and slowly figure out effective ways to attack. Inspirational choral music plays with standard action scenes that were done better in District 9. Boring.

This film should have started with the aliens quickly destroying all humans. The rest of the film could show what the aliens do with Earth's resources, or whether they are successful in pursuit of their initial goals. That's something people could actually talk about. Except for its flaws, there is nothing to talk about in Battle Los Angeles. It happens, and then you leave. A waste of time.