BATTLE: LOS ANGELES
CAROLINE: Battle: Los Angeles can very easily be summed up in two words: boy movie.
RYAN: [laughs’ I can’t say that’s a huge shock. I was semi-excited to see this with you, but couldn’t make the screening. Would I have liked it? I am, after all, a boy.
CAROLINE: You might have liked it for a bit, as I did. I was willing to give it a chance, and I knew it would be a movie with a lot of explosions; but that’s basically all it was. Hardly any story, just an alien attack and then explosions.
RYAN: Sounds like I dodged a bullet then.
CAROLINE: Look, it’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, and I’m sure men will go out in droves to see it this weekend; but after about 40 minutes of helicopters and explosions, I was bored. I quickly realized this movie was never going to be anything other than a bunch of Marines fighting aliens. Aaron Eckhart is always fun to watch; I hope for a better quality film from him next time. People were actually laughing at some of his dialogue.
RYAN: Ouch. He was just in Rabbit Hole though. Maybe he wanted to do a cheesy blockbuster.
CAROLINE: Fair enough. There are also smaller appearances from Michelle Rodriguez of Lost fame, Bridget Moynahan in a thankless damsel-in-distress role and Ne-Yo of all people.
RYAN: Interesting.
CAROLINE: Basically, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie. I liked the trailer a lot, but it was only 2 minutes long; I don’t need to see 2 hours of this stuff. I kept waiting for a twist, or at least for some story development, but it never came.
RYAN: Well, honey, LBH, it’s an alien movie. Maybe all it aspired to do was entertain men with explosions.
CAROLINE: I totally hear you, and that’s fine; but most movies like this have at least a little bit of plot. This one is just another apocalypse movie, this time with angry aliens invading our water supply. They gave the characters some back story so you’d care about them, but you kind of lose track of who’s who after a while. I didn’t really care who lived or died.
RYAN: How were the effects?
CAROLINE: They were good. It’s got a summer blockbuster feel, and is very reminiscent of Independence Day. There’s obviously some decent action, but I was never really engaged or on the edge of my seat.
— BOTTOM LINE —
CAROLINE: I somewhat liked this movie for 30 or 40 minutes, but ultimately, it wasn’t good enough to sustain 2 full hours. I know this is much more of a movie for men, and it requires a suspension of disbelief, but it just wasn’t that entertaining. Clearly I’m not the the target audience though. If you like aliens, explosions and minimal plot, then this movie is for you and you’ll definitely want to see it on the big screen to get the full effect. Otherwise, you don’t need to see it.
— RATING —
