At the start, Battle Los Angeles seems to lack the "battle" that the title promises. Various Marines and their personal stories are separately and rapidly introduced, though any action appears unlikely. Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz had experienced tragedy the last time his unit toured (he lost every one of his men), and the years aren't exactly being kind. Sergeant Nantz wants out, and never wants to see active duty again. Everything's going fine and dandy, and Nantz is nearly out, when a surprise hits California; literally. Mysterious meteors have begun to hit the surface of the earth in 20 major cities, worldwide. The military begins to gear up for what is sure to be an intense situation, dragging Nantz back to active duty. His platoon is under command of 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez, young and ambitious, straight from officer's candidate school. The situation becomes especially grave when the military, along with the general public, catches a few shaky shots of unidentified life forms piling out of the meteors: aliens. Suddenly, the platoon is launched into the foray. It's assumed that the aliens have crash landed on earth in order to steal a natural resource: water, which they use as an energy source. Aliens have begun attacking Los Angeles and Santa Monica, along with many of the world's major cities. The Air Force plans to take extreme measures and bomb Los Angeles to rid it of its alien invaders. Lieutenant Martinez's platoon plans to rescue frightened civilians from the LAPD station and evacuate them to a Forward Operating Base. During this mission, the Marines come face to face with an alien, and a civilian veterinarian aids them in dissecting it and helps them figure out how to kill the invaders. The platoon is joined by Tech Sergeant Elena Santos and other Army survivors. A helicopter comes to evacuate the Marines injured in earlier skirmishes, battered by alien attacks. An alien ship soon spots this helicopter and shoots it down, killing everyone on board. The civilians and the platoon no longer have any means of escape. Thinking on their feet, the platoon hot wires a bus, planning to drive the few miles to the Forward Operating Base, where they have hope of rescue. The platoon and the civilians travel for a bit, when it is discovered that the aliens are able to only identify humans if they give out radio signals (the military's communications), and Nantz manages to destroy an alien ship, by luring it with his radio, to a bomb. However, there's a catch. The on ramp to the highway is gone, blown to nothing, presumably by alien forces and they're not out of the woods yet. Aliens begin to circle, and Martinez decides to sacrifice himself to save the rest of his platoon and the civilians, giving up command to Nantz. He blows himself and many aliens up, while the platoon rappels down the side of the highway exit, taking the civilians to a convenience store, where they wait in a safe zone for the bombs to be dropped by the Air Force. One of the civilians had been hurt in the earlier fight on the on ramp, and he's beginning to die. The platoon waits for the air strike, but no bombs are dropped. They eventually make their way to the Forward Operating Base, discovering that aliens have destroyed it, explaining why there was no air strike. While the Marines reload ammunition and look for useful supplies and evacuation routes to safety, the injured civilian dies, leading one of the platoon to angrily recall an earlier incident when Nantz was in command of his last platoon where all of his Marines died. This platoon member's brother had served under Nantz and died. This leads to a long, drawn out talk about how Nantz would trade places with his dead men if given a chance, saying that he remembered--and cared about--each one, especially the Marine's dead brother. The men knew what being a Marine meant, and sometimes that meant sacrifice. The other platoon member is satisfied with this, and then begins to focus on the important situation at hand. Nantz guesses that the drone alien forces must have a controlling signal or command center, and knocking that out will render the alien forces useless. His platoon manages to find working assault vehicles and they ride their way to a new extraction point. After takeoff, Nantz spots an area without power in the city, leading him to believe that the alien control center could be there. He rappels down from the helicopter, ready to embark on a quest to single-handedly destroy the control center, but is followed by the rest of his platoon who won't let their commander go in alone. They track the location of the control center and head underground, getting their first look at the enormity of it. Moving above ground, they call in a missile strike that only cripples a small part of the alien vessel. Alien droids attach themselves to their control center, hoping to rescue it from incoming danger. A few more missile strikes arrive, and droids confuse the missiles, blowing the aliens up instead of their control center. Sergeant Santos uses a rocket launcher to take out a circling droid, and the control center is finally hit. The droids begin to retreat. The platoon is soon evacuated to a temporary base in the Mojave Desert, and is congratulated for their exceptional work, told to rest and eat. Other military forces across the planet are going on missions to remove the control centers in their cities. Nantz takes one look at the fresh ammunition laid out in their resting tents, and can't turn away from the action. He and his platoon gear up for the next leg of the battle, ready to win the war. Battle Los Angeles can be called a true story gone wild. Well, that depends on the interpretation of "true story". The actual Battle of Los Angeles occurred during World War II, though some speculation says that UFOs made an appearance during this
mysterious event, originally thought to be a Japanese air raid, but later labeled as a "false alarm
". Battle Los Angeles worked hard to have the audience identify with its characters (though due to the size of the cast, kind of difficult to keep up with), while they scream, shoot, bomb, cut, and cry their way through an alien ridden city. It's sometimes hard to focus on
everyone's personal problems when aliens are making the city collapse around you. There were so many back stories and side plots going on at once. Lieutenant Martinez has a breakdown when he realizes that being out in the field is much different than being behind a desk in class. He later sacrifices himself to save his platoon and their rescued civilians, even though he has a baby and a wife to come home to. An inexperienced, young Marine, barely a man, is killed in the alien caused helicopter crash, while his closest friend is stricken with grief because he couldn't look out for him like always. A civilian child is forced to lose his father, and a platoon member remembers the injustice that his brother had been done by
Nantz, and starts a conflict about it, during an inappropriate time. There are other things to worry about than personal grudges.
Battle Los Angeles isn't sure whether its a totally plot driven movie, an action flick, or a sci-
fi alien shoot-em'-up. The actors delivered convincing performances, but had to pause every few scenes to be emotional and then later throw themselves back into incredibly loud, shaky action sequences that kind of gave you whiplash from the contrast. The twists and turns in the plot eventually became predictable, leaving you saying,
no, destroying the aliens can't be that easy, which carries you to the next action scene after the platoon fails to execute their first plan. After a while, the gunshots become white noise and the bombings become predictable, though the element of suspense still clings on for dear life. Another death is expected, and though you've identified with the character, it doesn't seem like a huge loss after the fact. When you finally predict the plot to go one way, it actually surprises you and goes the opposite direction, though your first prediction would've probably made a better movie. By the end of the film, you're begging for something that won't leave you emotionally confounded, and thankfully, they just send them out into battle once more. The battle goes on, and finally, you can imagine the only possibly ending: peace on earth and all the aliens are gone.
Check out the trailer:
