Battle: Los Angeles

“Retreat, Hell!”

Swift shot: What can I say, I was once an active duty member of the Few and the Proud, and make no mistake, this movie was a Hard Core Hallmark Card to the United States Marine Corps!  If you don’t enjoy it, tell it to Chesty Puller!  This sci-fi-action-thriller, scratch that, this war movie is all about the unit-level experience on the ground fighting off an invading force.  The fact there are aliens is an after thought, this could be just about any invading force we may find ourselves contending with . . . so, take notes young Teufelhunden, learn from the mistakes, admire the fight in the heart of all the Marines and TSgt Elena Santos (USAF) as they battle from block to block, struggling to save the City of Angels and perhaps the entire planet.

[Adjust your windage here to check out my interview with a few of the actors in South Beach]

This film was all about action, very little exposition, by design (which you can hear Michelle Rodriguez explain in the interview) and delivery was intense, street to street fighting with a superior enemy – yet, the Marines of the 2/5 adapted and overcame to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver . . . and some damned fine ingenuity albeit with dramatic sacrifices.  But, do they manage to do enough?

The film opens with Aaron Eckhart, in PT gear, running on the beach, getting the dreaded “Good Morning, Staff Sergeant,” as his young bucks repeatedly lap him, which being a former young buck was the best revenge for an SNCO that really pissed you off the day before.  Granted, he could always play “games” later, but I am getting ahead of myself – you folks aren’t all Marines, so let me adjust a few clicks to the left.

Eckhart plays a twenty-year Staff Sergeant, which immediately triggered the, uh oh, he’s been in trouble, response in my mind, because very few Marines get out at 20 years as a Staff Sergeant unless they got themselves into some sort of trouble (usually political).  It isn’t immediately clear that his character, Staff Sergeant Nance is a bad Marine, in fact, on the day of the invasion, he has already signed his paper work and is officially out of the Corps when the shit really hits the beach.  But, we soon find out why he isn’t the most admired leader.

Leadership in the Marines is key, and while a combat hardened veteran, like Nance, would be the logical choice to lead, rank is there for a reason.  Enter Second Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez), fresh out of Officer Candidate School (OCS) and determined to make an impression on his new Marines.  His normal Staff Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) is out of commission, so he is stuck with SSgt Nance once the invasion of Earth is on.  Remember, Nance is officially a civilian at this point.

I really want to write pages and pages about each character, because to me, they were all important, but there were a few stand-out players, namely Corporal Lee Imlay (Will Rothhaar), who was the essence of a hard-charging Marine bad-ass, delivering all manner of high explosives and rounds down range for the enemy to contend with.  To him, and to the other Marines of the 2/5, this new enemy is just some other thing to kill, figure out how to kill them and get it done.  There is one incredibly graphic and gut-wrenching scene where an alien is vivisected for this very reason.

I can’t recall many moments of the overall doom and dread that was befalling the planet, each Soldier, Airman, Sailor, and Marine was focused on one thing throughout, accomplish the mission.  And, here is where I had to suspend disbelief quite a bit.  Los Angeles is essentially completely evacuated in less than 24 hours, save for a few stragglers here and there.  I call B.S., because as anyone knows who has to run evacuations . . . no one wants to leave.  Still, I went with it.  The Marines are in a small fire-team, essentially a squad sized unit (if memory serves) and are ordered to retrieve a few known civilians who are holed up in one of the LA police stations.

It is there we meet Joe Rincon (Michael Pena) and Michelle (Bridget Moynahan) who both have children with them, Joe has his son, and poor Michelle has her niece who she only sees occasionally, visiting Los Angeles.  Talk about lousy timing, kid!  The battles that take place just to get to the police station are amazingly intense, and while you may find yourself frustrated with only catching glimpses of the enemy, mere flashes really, that too was by design.  You are mired in the unknown, just like the fire-team, essentially, perpetually in a “what the hell was that?” agitated state of alertness.

The film has a video-game feel to it, where you are immersed in phases of battles gaining in intensity, weaponry, and difficulty.  I hate to say this, but it is what it is, the Marines are increasingly faced with new intellectual and tactical challenges.  Once they meet up with TSgt Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez) they even gain more intel as she has been tracking what she believes to be a Command and Control asset.  The Marines have one mission really, get the civilians from the police station to their Forward Operating Base (FOB), and they have less than three hours, because heavy air ordinance is going to be delivered to level the city.

There is some really great behind the scenes stuff in my interview, again, link provided above.  Ultimately, I agree with each of the actors, the aliens were well done, they weren’t corny, they weren’t too soft and they, more importantly, were not over the top.  In a movie laden with CGI, it is tempting to go all out, but this film was impeccable in the authentic feel of the action.  To quote Michelle Rodriguez, “you can tag the experience or you can tell a story.”  Battle: Los Angeles tags the experience and puts you on the ground with the grunts.

I only have one criticism, and that was at the very end of the film, which obviously I am not going to give away here.  If you want a bad-ass, first-person style war-shooter, you can’t go wrong, but in the end, this film was meant for Marines, if you find yourself enjoying it too, great, if not . . . pound sand, because we don’t care!  And to my Marine friends, if you don’t add this to your must own Blu Ray collection, maybe you need to report to Captain Lloyd W. Williams!