Battle: Los Angeles delivers everything the previews promise, no more and no less. So if you like huge explosions, marine and aliens exchanging gunfire, and impossible rescue missions you will be entertained by Battle: Los Angeles.

The story is very straight forward. Aliens invade, the Marines are dispatched, the platoon we follow finds a way to fend off the enemy despite what seem like impossible odds. The previews seem to promise an all military type of alien invasion film which intrigued me, almost like a Black Hawk Down type of film. To its disadvantage, it did not hold true to that.
 

The script was riddled with cliques of macho speak and combat speak. The first twenty minutes of the movie was devoted to establishing the group of marines we will follow, and none of these scenes resonated with me, as nothing particularly original or interesting happens. I found myself waiting for the action. Once the bullets start flying it really doesn’t stop until the end. But again, the script fails us, as the reason for sending this platoon in, considering the severity of the attack, is extremely weak.

I did like the premise of why the aliens were here, but I disliked the design of the aliens themselves. I felt I had seen that design done better in several other films. The “spaceships” did not seem to offer anything unique to the sci-fi genre as well which was a disappointment. 

The worst part of the movie, by a long shot, is the soundtrack. The music itself was not bad, but the tone of the music did not match the movie at all. It seemed like the producers accidentally matched a historical drama’s soundtrack with this film. In addition, the music was constant throughout the entire movie. The combination of the wrong style and continuous play actually made the film less intense which was certainly counter productive to what Battle: Los Angeles was obviously aiming for.
 

If you are a fan of alien invasion movies, you will be pleased with Battle: Los Angeles. Although it doesn’t do anything unique it does execute its action scenes well, and lets face it, most people going to this movie are looking for the action and not the dramatic acting. If you are going with hopes of finding something new and different, like last year’s District 9, you will be disappointed. 

FILMS LIKE BATTLE: LOS ANGELES – Independence Day, Starship Troopers and Transformers

Justin Buettner is Style's resident movie dude! How did he get this role? Well, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelor of Arts in film Production and a duel minor in Animation and Business with an emphasis in the entertainment field. He later went on to work on several independent films in various key roles including writer and later worked in the special effects field as a motion capture artist. He has since relocated to the Sacramento area with his family and continues writing for small independent films in addition to his movie reviews for Style Magazine.