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Battle: Los Angeles

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For other uses, see Battle of Los Angeles (disambiguation).
Battle: Los Angeles
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJonathan Liebesman
Written byChris Bertolini
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyLukas Ettlin
Edited byChristian Wagner
Music byBrian Tyler
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures[1]
Release date
  • March 11, 2011 (2011-03-11)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70 million[2]
Box office$211,444,380[3]

Battle: Los Angeles (also known as Battle: LA and internationally as World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles) is a 2011 American military science fiction war film directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo and Michael Peña. The film is set in modern day Los Angeles and follows a platoon of U.S. Marines during a global alien invasion, who are joined by an Airman who is a Combat Air Controller from the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and some soldiers from an U.S. Army National Guard Infantry Regiment. The events of the film are inspired by the Battle of Los Angeles, a supposed World War II air raid of the city which turned out to be a false alarm caused by several unidentified flying objects.[4][5][6]

Plot

Mysterious objects thought to be meteorites land in Earth's oceans near many major cities. These objects are revealed to be spacecraft containing hostile extraterrestrial life. Marines from Camp Pendleton arrive in Los Angeles, including SSgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), a 20-year veteran who lost his squad during his last deployment in Afghanistan. Nantz had planned to retire, but must replace the platoon sergeant from Echo Company, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines.

Under command of 2ndLt. William Martinez (Ramón Rodríguez), who graduated from The Basic School one month earlier, the platoon arrives at Santa Monica Airport, now a Forward Operating Base. The alien ground forces have no air support, and the Air Force plans to commence saturation bombing of the Santa Monica area. The platoon must rescue civilians from an LAPD police station in West Los Angeles before the bombing. As they advance through the city, they are ambushed and suffer casualties, but find a group of Army National Guard soldiers from the 40th Infantry Division, including Air Force intelligence TSgt. Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez). At the police station the platoon finds five civilians inside: A veterinarian named Michele (Bridget Moynahan), children Hector Rincon (Bryce Cass), Kirsten (Joey King), and Amy (Jadin Gould), and Hector's father Joe (Michael Peña). A helicopter arrives to evacuate the wounded Marines Simmons, Guerrero, Lenihan, and Grayston, but cannot take the civilians. An alien aircraft destroys the helicopter, killing everyone aboard.

The Marines commandeer a city bus for evacuation. They also find a wounded alien and, with the help of Michele, study the aliens' physiology, finding a weak point in the torso. They also learn that the alien aircraft are remote-controlled drones which track human radio transmissions. Santos reveals that her original mission was to locate the aliens' central command center, believing that its destruction would deactivate the alien drones. On the I-10 freeway, the bus comes under attack. Because the off-ramp is destroyed, the Marines rappel the civilians off the freeway. The Army personnel and Marines Stavrou and Mottola are killed, and Rincon and Lt. Martinez are wounded. Martinez sacrifices himself to destroy the enemy unit by detonating C-4 explosives inside the bus, leaving Nantz in command.

The survivors (Nantz, Santos, Cpl. Kevin Harris (Ne-Yo), Corpsman Jibril Adukwu (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), LCpl. Peter Kerns (Jim Parrack), Cpl. Lee Imlay (Will Rothhaar), Cpl. Jason Lockett (Cory Hardrict), and the five civilians) escape the bombing zone. A news report speculates that the aliens want Earth's water, which they use as fuel. The team waits for the bombing, but nothing happens. At the airport the Marines learn that the aliens destroyed the FOB and that the military is retreating from Los Angeles. Echo Company plans to escort the civilians to an alternate extraction point. Before they leave, Rincon dies from his wounds and Lockett, whose brother died under Nantz's command in Afghanistan, questions Nantz's ability to lead. Nantz and Lockett deal with their guilt and anger as Nantz lists the names, ranks, and service numbers of all the Marines who have died under his command from memory. They reach the extraction point and leave.

From the air, their evacuation helicopter has a power glitch and Nantz speculates that it is the location of the alien command center beaming radio energy to the drones. He decides to recon the area alone, but his team insists on accompanying him. Going underground, the Marines confirm the presence of a large alien vessel and return to the surface. Kerns radios in to request guided missiles, which Nantz will target via laser designator while the others defend the position. Kerns is killed when his radio broadcasts draw attention to him, and the command center, damaged but not disabled by the first missile, rises from the ground to escape. The Marines succeed in guiding another missile to the command center, which collapses. The alien ground forces retreat as their uncontrolled drones fall to the ground, and reinforcements arrive to extract the surviving Marines.

At a base in the Mojave Desert Nantz's team is greeted as heroes for their bravery. Other cities under attack will emulate their strategy. Despite orders to rest, Nantz's team rejoin the rest of the Marines in retaking Los Angeles.

Cast

Production

Jonathan Liebesman intended the film to be a realistic depiction of an alien invasion in the style of a war film, taking inspiration from the films Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, and United 93 for his documentary style of filming.[7][8][9] Liebesman also drew inspiration from YouTube videos of Marines fighting in Fallujah for the look of the film.[10][11] As a result the film was not shot in 3D as the director felt that combined with the handheld camera style of shooting would make the audience "throw up in two minutes."[8] Instead standard film was used, intercutting footage from three different cameras.[7] The filmmakers tested shooting the film digitally on a Red camera, but found the camera could not capture the same quality image as standard film.[7] The film was shot for a PG-13 rating, as the director felt making the film overly gory did not suit the more suspenseful tone they were trying to achieve.[7] Screenwriter Chris Bertolini tried to include humour and suspense as well as action, which he felt were important elements to help draw the audience into the drama.[7]

Michelle Rodriguez (left) and Aaron Eckhart (right), along with director Jonathan Liebesman at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

The film's story was partly inspired by the Battle of Los Angeles, a rumored enemy attack and subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage that took place in Los Angeles during World War II, on the night of February 24, 1942; this real incident was used as the main focus of an early teaser trailer to promote the film, in which its strongly implied the alien invaders spent decades planning their attack and invasion.[4] The filmmakers drew upon this historical event in an attempt to help ground the film in reality.[12] Aaron Eckhart said that the objective of the film was to make as realistic an alien invasion movie as possible; "The goal was: this is a war movie, a documentary style war movie—with aliens in it."[13] The actors went through three weeks of boot camp, in order to learn how to realistically operate as a marine platoon.[7] In addition, Eckhart had done training with the Marines for a few months beforehand in weapons training and drills.[14] On set, military technical advisors worked with the actors to ensure they gave a realistic performance.[15] Eckhart broke his upper arm when he fell off a ledge during an action sequence, but continued to work for the remainder of the film without having it put in a cast.[14]

While the director tried to use practical effects whenever possible (although green screen and CGI were used), such as for explosions, 90% of the aliens are computer generated, as the director felt they would be too difficult to achieve any other way.[7][8] The invaders were designed by Paul Gerrard,[9] who made them to appear "very alien", neither arthropod nor vertebrate, while Liebesman described them as "genocidal Nazis... They look at us like we look at ants."[8] Liebesman wanted the aliens to appear to function as a real army, complete with medics and different ranking officers, and using tactics such as taking cover to protect themselves.[8][10] Liebesman also confirmed that the aliens are invading for the Earth's natural resources, specifically because the Earth is 70% covered with water.[10]

Filming took place from September 2009 through December 2009 in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana [16] (with some scenes filmed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, CA). Louisiana was chosen instead of Los Angeles mainly due to financial advantages.[14] Principal photography began in the second week of September in Shreveport with scenes depicting a destroyed interstate filled with cars, an overturned tanker truck, and a crashed helicopter. Post-production lasted throughout 2010 and into 2011. Special effects used in the principal photography included pyrotechnics. The most climactic of all was a large fireball-producing explosion which was said to have alarmed some residents and passers-by. Film crews implemented use of a large "green-screen" billboard at the base (end) of the "destroyed" interstate to use later for inserting CGI images of Los Angeles.[17]

There was military support for filming. Numerous Marine units assisted in filming, including infantry from 2nd Battalion 1st Marines, MV-22 Ospreys from VMMT-204 (based at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina), CH-46 Sea Knights from HMM-268 and HMM-774 (based in Camp Pendleton and Naval Station Norfolk, respectively), and reservists from 3rd Battalion 23rd Marines based in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.[18]

Sony Pictures Entertainment investigated the possibility of legal action against the filmmakers Greg and Colin Strause, who were hired to do visual effects work on Battle: Los Angeles through their special effects company Hydraulx. Sony Pictures suspected the Strause brothers had created their own Los Angeles-based alien invasion film Skyline, which would compete with the Battle: Los Angeles release, by using resources they had gained while working on Battle: Los Angeles without the consent of Sony Pictures.[19] A spokesman for the Strauses responded by saying, "Any claims of impropriety are completely baseless. This is a blatant attempt by Sony to force these independent filmmakers to move a release date that has long been set by Universal and Relativity and is outside the filmmakers' control."[20]

Video game

Main article: Battle: Los Angeles (video game)

As of 2011, a first-person shooter video game developed by Live Action Studios and published by Konami has been released on Xbox Live Arcade and Steam on 11 March, the OnLive game service (as part of its Playpack subscription service) on 15 March, and on PlayStation Network on 22 March.[21] Eckhart reprised his role for the game.[22] Players assume the role of Corporal Lee Imlay throughout the game.

Soundtrack

Main article: Battle: Los Angeles (soundtrack)

The score was composed by Brian Tyler and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. The soundtrack for the film released on 8 March 2011.[23] A song used in the trailer is "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black" by Jóhann Jóhannsson.[24]

Reception

Critical response

The film's reception was generally negative. Most critics praised the special effects, but criticized the cliched script. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 35% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 191 reviews, with an average score of 4.8/10 .[25] The website reported the critical consensus, "Overlong and overly burdened with war movie clichés, Battle: Los Angeles will entertain only the most ardent action junkies".Review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 37 (out of 100) based on 35 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be "Generally unfavorable reviews".[26]

Roger Ebert panned Battle: Los Angeles in a lengthy review, calling the movie "noisy, violent, ugly and stupid", giving the film a mere half star rating. Though he praised Aaron Eckhart's performance, Ebert heavily criticized the film's writing, effects designs, camerawork and editing. He closed his review by saying, "When I think of the elegant construction of something like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, I want to rend the hair from my head and weep bitter tears of despair. Generations of filmmakers devoted their lives to perfecting techniques that a director like Jonathan Liebesman is either ignorant of, or indifferent to. Yet he is given millions of dollars to produce this assault on the attention span of a generation."[27]

Battle: Los Angeles was given poor reviews by the Los Angeles Times,[28] New York Times,[29] USA Today,[30] Entertainment Weekly,[31] and Variety.[32] Kim Newman of Empire rated the film 2 stars out of 5 and criticized its lack of originality.[33] Nigel Floyd of Time Out rated the film 2 stars saying that it "... lumbers the flat military characters with hackneyed dialogue and corny sentimentality".[34]

Neil Smith of Total Film magazine rated the film as 3 stars out of 5 and summarized, "Imagine Black Hawk Down with ET's instead of Somalis and you'll have the measure of an explosive if functional actioner that will do while we're waiting for summer's big guns to arrive".[35] Both the Radio Times and the Chicago Tribune also rated the film 3 out of 5.[36][37] IGN rated the film 3 out of 5, stating that the film has spectacular visuals and intense action packed scenes.[38]

Box office

Battle: Los Angeles debuted in 3,417 theaters, grossing $13,399,310 on its opening day, which was the best opening-day gross for 2011 until the record was surpassed by Fast Five. Overall the film made $35,573,187 and ranked #1 on its opening weekend ahead of Red Riding Hood and Mars Needs Moms.[39] The film dropped to #2 after a week when Rango topped the box office on St. Patrick's Day. As of May 22, 2011, the film has grossed $83,552,429 in the United States and Canadian markets and $118,914,327 in international markets, for a worldwide total of $202,466,756.[40]

Sequel

Aaron Eckhart has stated he would be interested in returning for a sequel. Additionally, fans have been pressuring the directors about reaching to another site of the world, if "the war continued", but with the same characters.[41]

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray Combo Pack June 14, 2011 in the U.S. And on DVD and Blu-ray on 11 July 2011 in the UK.[42].

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Battle: Los Angeles: Official Site". February 15, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  2. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles Likely to Beat Red Riding Hood at Box Office". 10 March 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  3. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles (2011)". Box Office Mojo. 2011-03-02. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  4. ^ a b "'Battle: Los Angeles' Based on a Real-Life UFO Attack (Maybe)". February 15, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  5. ^ "Another Cool Trailer for Battle: Los Angeles". 2010-12-06. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  6. ^ "New Trailer for Battle: Los Angeles". 2011-11-02. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g "Director Jonathan Liebesman, Producer's Ori Marmur & Jeffrey Churnov, James D. Dever, and Screenwriter Chris Bertolini On Set Interview BATTLE: LOS ANGELES". 2011-01-20. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Interview: Jonathan Liebesman Talks Battle: Los Angeles". 2010-07-29. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  9. ^ a b "Jonathan Liebesman on 'Battle: Los Angeles'". 2011-02-23. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  10. ^ a b c "Comic-Con 2010: 'Battle: Los Angeles' Press Panel". 2010-07-22. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
  11. ^ "Aaron Eckhart on 'Battle: Los Angeles'". 2011-02-23. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  12. ^ "The Real 'Battle: Los Angeles' Have Aliens Already Invaded?". 2011-02-25. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
  13. ^ "Aaron Eckhart: Battle: LA Has Same 'Real Feel' as The Dark Knight". 2011-02-24. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
  14. ^ a b c "Ready for the battle?". Chennai, India: The Hindu. March 4, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Aaron Eckhart, Michael Peña, Michelle Rodriguez, Cory Hardrict, Bridget Moynahan and Ramon Rodriguez On Set Interview BATTLE: LOS ANGELES". 2011-01-27. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  16. ^ "'Battle: Los Angeles', Aaron Eckhart to shoot in Baton Rouge, Shreveport".
  17. ^ "Mushroom Cloud Swarms Louisiana From Set of 'Battle: Los Angeles'".
  18. ^ "The Aliens Are Pissed On The Set Of 'Battle: LA'".
  19. ^ "'Battle: Los Angeles' Goes to War with 'Skyline'".
  20. ^ "'Battle: Los Angeles' to Battle 'Skyline' in Court".
  21. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles game announced". Digital Spy. March 4, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  22. ^ March 10, 2011 (2011-03-10). "Battle: Los Angeles Interview With Aaron Eckhart in High Definition –". G4tv.com. Retrieved 2011-03-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles Soundtrack". BrianTyler.com. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  24. ^ Soundtrack review for Battle: Los Angeles. Tracksounds. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  25. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
  26. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  27. ^ Ebert, Roger. "Battle: Los Angeles". Chicago Sun-Times.
  28. ^ LA Times article: "Movie review: 'Battle: Los Angeles'."
  29. ^ New York Times article: "Movie Review - Battle: Los Angeles (2011)".
  30. ^ USA Today article: "Been there, fought that in 'Battle: Los Angeles'."
  31. ^ Entertainment Weekly review: "Movie Review - Battle: Los Angeles (2011)."
  32. ^ Variety article: "Battle: Los Angeles."
  33. ^ Kim Newman (March 10, 2011). "Empire's Battle: Los Angeles Movie Review". Empire. Retrieved March 10, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ Nigel Floyd (March 10, 2011). "Battle: Los Angeles Review". Time Out. Retrieved March 10, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles review". Total Film. March 10, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  36. ^ "''Battle Los Angeles (2011)'' The Radio Times". Radiotimes.com. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  37. ^ Phillips, Michael (2011-03-10). "''Cliches abound, but 'Battle: Los Angeles' prevails'' Chicago Tribune". Chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  38. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles Video Review". YouTube. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  39. ^ "Weekend Report: 'Battle' Erupts, 'Red,' 'Mars' Stumble". Box Office Mojo. 2011-03-14. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  40. ^ "Battle: Los Angeles (2011)". Box Office Mojo. 2011-04-05. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
  41. ^ "'Battle: Los Angeles' sequel? Aaron Eckhart is ready 'to wear the uniform again'". Los Angeles Times.
  42. ^ http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/19510175/Battle-Los-Angeles/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=battle%3a+los+angeles&urlrefer=search
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