Battle: Los Angeles
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
With: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, etc.
I suppose it’s okay for a movie to borrow from other sources, as original ideas seem to be at a premium these days. (Recalling that mediocre artists borrow, and great artists steal.) But, to borrow ideas and then do nothing with them just seems pointless.
This movie has antecedents in War of the Worlds, both the Wells and the Welles versions, Independence Day, District 9, and even that little-but-mighty cheapie Monsters, from last year.
Eckhart is a semi-disgraced sergeant who is assigned a platoon just as he is about to retire, complete with young and inexperienced lieutenant. Then, it happens. Aliens are invading Earth, all the biggest cities are falling to their superior firepower and technology, blah blah blah.
You could write this one yourself, if you weren’t particularly creative. But, the worst is yet to come.
The platoon is the deeply cliched group familiar from all those WW II movies: diverse (although no Brooklyn Jew, a daring omission), the young guy who is getting married, the resentful, the cowardly, plus terrified civilians who sacrifice themselves, etc. Will the young lieutenant come through when the plot hits the fan? Will the kid live to marry his sweetheart? Will the sergeant redeem himself? Will American guts and brains defeat the invaders? Have we seen this all before?
I’ll bet you can answer all these questions without seeing the flick. And I recommend that. I predict that this will be a big hit movie, and that is why the movie business is in the shape it’s in.
D