Rview: entertainment news & reviews

Photo
Battle LA **.5 Directed by: Jonathan Liebsman  Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ne-Yo From the trailers, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a fast paced alien invasion style sci-fi action thriller. R:View suggests you’d be sort of right… Aaron Eckhart plays a retired Marine staff sergeant, who may or may not have led his last platoon to their deaths, but is pulled back to the front line when asked to lead a new squadron to fight the alien invasion of LA. Jonathan Liebesman is at the helm once again, whose biggest films to date have been horror prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Darkness Falls (so not that big, then) decides to have a pop at the sci-fi action genre, with varying results. The casting is one of the weakest issues; Ne-Yo barely gets a look in and there are one or two talented actors, namely Michael Pena and Michelle Rodriguez who are woefully underused, almost marginalised. Stories have whirled around the internet, in the press and various interviews detailing how “method” Aaron Eckhart has been getting under the skin of his character, ie. being in character 24/7 during the shoot. This has worked in his favour as he essentially carries the entire film. Although the visual effects are up to standard for a film of this genre (a scene in which an alien invader is captured and then taken apart looks frighteningly real), the “shaky cam” zoom -in for a tight close up then quickly zoom out again - style of filming is nauseating at times. Coupled with that, the pacing, writing and dialogue are fairly bereft of any originality. Of course, the military live to fight another day which is fairly uplifting but still; this is such a jingoistic film, you feel that the US national anthem should be playing over the end credits (not that this reviewer is anti-American of course…). To be fair, there are some touching moments; a young boy who loses his father to one of the aliens proves to be very brave, it’s a solid portrayal of the modern US military and camaraderie in the face of near- overwhelming adversity, not to mention a parable for the US efforts in the Mid-East. That said, Battle LA isn’t the riveting sci-fi action thriller as purported by the trailers, perhaps one to catch on blu-ray when it’s inevitably released in the next 4 months.

Battle LA **.5

Directed by: Jonathan Liebsman

 Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ne-Yo

From the trailers, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a fast paced alien invasion style sci-fi action thriller. R:View suggests you’d be sort of right…

Aaron Eckhart plays a retired Marine staff sergeant, who may or may not have led his last platoon to their deaths, but is pulled back to the front line when asked to lead a new squadron to fight the alien invasion of LA. Jonathan Liebesman is at the helm once again, whose biggest films to date have been horror prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Darkness Falls (so not that big, then) decides to have a pop at the sci-fi action genre, with varying results.

The casting is one of the weakest issues; Ne-Yo barely gets a look in and there are one or two talented actors, namely Michael Pena and Michelle Rodriguez who are woefully underused, almost marginalised. Stories have whirled around the internet, in the press and various interviews detailing how “method” Aaron Eckhart has been getting under the skin of his character, ie. being in character 24/7 during the shoot. This has worked in his favour as he essentially carries the entire film. Although the visual effects are up to standard for a film of this genre (a scene in which an alien invader is captured and then taken apart looks frighteningly real), the “shaky cam” zoom -in for a tight close up then quickly zoom out again - style of filming is nauseating at times. Coupled with that, the pacing, writing and dialogue are fairly bereft of any originality. Of course, the military live to fight another day which is fairly uplifting but still; this is such a jingoistic film, you feel that the US national anthem should be playing over the end credits (not that this reviewer is anti-American of course…). To be fair, there are some touching moments; a young boy who loses his father to one of the aliens proves to be very brave, it’s a solid portrayal of the modern US military and camaraderie in the face of near- overwhelming adversity, not to mention a parable for the US efforts in the Mid-East.

That said, Battle LA isn’t the riveting sci-fi action thriller as purported by the trailers, perhaps one to catch on blu-ray when it’s inevitably released in the next 4 months.


To Tumblr, Love PixelUnion