BATTLE: LOS ANGELES

Battle: Los Angeles stars Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Michael Pena and Ramon Rodriguez. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Rated PG-13 with a running time of 1 hr. and 56 mins. Studio: Sony/Columbia.

Plot: As people everywhere watch the world's great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It's up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they've ever encountered before.

It's a shame Battle: LA didn't try to reinvent the alien invasion movie. Instead it just looks like a mix of Independence Day, District 9 and some Black Hawk Down thrown together. There are some amazing special effects and action and a decent job by Aaron Eckhart but besides that you have pretty much seen everything that is in Battle: LA. The biggest problem with the movie is the script. There was tons of bogus dialogue that made me want to chuckle. It's not that the acting was terrible it was just the lines they had to say that were terrible. Another thing that I didn't get was that a lot of the supporting cast that played the civilians were literally given nothing to do. They are basically just standing in the thick of battle and a lot of times they aren't even shown on camera. I found that to be very odd.

In the beginning of the movie it tries to introduce the characters and give you some background on them. It isn't done very well and you are sitting there waiting for the action to start so you really just don't care about their backgrounds. The idea of marines fighting aliens hasn't really been done before but it just looks and feels like every other alien invasion movie thats been made. The action scenes got very repetitive but for the most part they were still pretty entertaining. One thing that bothered me was that the entire film seemed to have a gray smokey film over it. I know it was LA and there were explosions and stuff but I mean come on show me some color!

If you have seen movies like Independence Day and District 9 then you have pretty much already seen Battle: LA. The action was good and Aaron Eckhart does a fine job but the script cheeses up the whole movie. The movie is definitely flawed but I think it is worthy as an action movie.

C+