Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: LA is a movie that I really wanted to love and I went into it with what I still think were realistic expectations. Beforehand I had read a few reviews saying that even though it was filled with every war movie cliche in the book, it still had great action and was a ton of fun., and that's all I wanted. I don't think that's asking too much, do you?

I might be giving the impression that I really didn't like the movie, but that's not entirely true. I'm more disappointed by it than anything. I love the idea for Battle:LA, a straight up war movie that just happens to have aliens much like this summer's Cowboys and Aliens which claims to be a western that just happens to include aliens as well. I love that we have so many serious Sci-fi movies being made right now, both big and small. Battle: LA is definitely big, and like I said earlier, I wasn't expecting the best alien invasion movie ever, but I really wanted an intense action movie that would put me on the edge of my seat. It's been a slow couple of months for movies in that department, and I was especially in the mood for one after a long and even more disappointing award season.

It all starts promisingly enough, opening hard and fast with the invasion in full swing. It's a bold move, and had it continued from there it could have made for a very different experience, allowing us to get to know characters through actions and small moments. Instead, the movie flashes 24 hours earlier in an attempt to get the audience invested in the characters, all of whom you've seen before. The Virgin, the father to be, the hero with a dark past, a guy from Jersey, they're all here.

You know what though, it's not the one note characters that I mind, or the even worse dialogue. I can deal with that. Hell sometimes, for whatever reason, it makes me love a movie more as long as the action delivers. That, for me, is the main problem with Battle: LA. There is no tension. I felt almost nothing during most of the films many action scenes. It's not that they aren't staged well, or that the aliens aren't menacing. There just isn't a real sense of danger, something that I feel is a must for this genre. I know I should sit back and enjoy the explosions, but this movie keeps trying and trying to be intense and thrilling, and that's what ruins it for me. This movie wants to be good. It tries so hard and despite all the game efforts by cast and crew, they just couldn't make it happen.

Hopefully Cowboys & Aliens can fill this void I have in me now, a void for a really good, straight faced alien invasion.