Battle: Los Angeles Review (3/5)

Is this a battle you should skip by?
It's frequently refreshing to return to films you missed in the last year in the absence of many new flicks to see at the cinema as I have done with Battle: Los Angeles, and I think if you choose to do the same you'll certainly find you could have done a lot worse. The plot picks up as a group of US marines are left alone in the city of Los Angeles when it is invaded by an extraterresterial menace, forcing a band of unlikely allies to work together to beat back their conquerers and make the first steps towards liberating the States. It's a typical popcorn blockbuster premise to be sure, yet Battle's writers and director seem to have used this to play on our expectations, actually managing to provide a quite heartfelt and ultimately very human storyline that will easily pull at the emotional strings of its more sensitive watchers. There's nothing here that comes anywhere near matching the tear-jerking setpieces of Saving Private Ryan, Armageddon or any other classics of a similar ilk, though, seeing as the main characters are essentially recycled from those greats in such a manner that it almost seems distasteful. You won't rememeber any of the main comrades' names unless you paid real attention to the dialogue (frequently chopped up by the various explosions and cheesy sound effects), throwing any chance of this being a wholeheartedly empathetic tale out of the window, so to speak. Admittedly, the direction and the CGI on offer are mostly impressive, especially with some of the effects matching the likes of 2012 and Avatar- and for any film to come close to the latter is a mighty feat- at times, even if the martians themselves once again seem kicked out of the rubbish bin of the original concepts for the Aliens VS Predator franchise, but as always what's on the outside can't count for too much if what's on the inside is mostly hollow and insubstantial. That was something Chronicle discovered the difficult way last week, and although at no point does Battle reach quite the same narrative lows as that major disappointment (for me), it's too afraid to go beyond the required Transformers-style call of duty of aping the great motion pictures of old, and thus to score any higher than it does. By no means is there much need for you to go out of your way to see Battle: Los Angeles, but if you do catch it on Sky Movies Premiere this week, I reckon you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much heart Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and co have to offer in this relatively fun, ballistic affair.