ALL SCI-FI

[orzel-w]

What? No thread for Battle: Los Angeles? Well, let's just fix that right now.

. . . . . . . .

All too often we're tantalized by promising trailers, then let down by the movie itself. This is not the case for Battle: Los Angeles. The movie actually lives up to the previews.



Per descriptions of the production staff, B:LA is a war movie... but with aliens. Of course, the same could be said of Monsters: Dark Continent (2014), aka Monsters 2. But in that movie the aliens are nearly an incidental backdrop for the military story. In B:LA the aliens are very much in the foreground.

Director Jonathan Liebesman did his homework thoroughly in preparing the concept and selling it to the studio suits. This is one of those movies in which the actors are put through some elementary military training so they are able to act like the military. Then the movie is filmed documentary style as though by a journalist embedded with the squad. And it works.

The action supposedly takes place in L.A., so I kept looking for something I might recognize. And though it looked familiar, there was nothing I could pin down. Seems it was actually filmed in LA (Louisiana). Coulda fooled me. In fact, it did.

The aliens are well designed and presented. They make the aliens in War of the Worlds (2005) look like cartoons. We never get a good look at the aliens here until the Marines get their hands on one and perform a field vivisection. Even then you're not really sure what it is you're seeing. Other than that, we view the aliens and their equipment in quick glimpses, obscured by smoke and rubble, as though we're trying to keep from becoming casualties ourselves. Liebesman used practical sets and props as much as possible so the actors would be immersed in a real environment and have something tangible to interact with. Then he filled in with CGI where necessary.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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Hot damn, Wayne, you wrote this post exactly the way I like 'em, and it is gorgeous! All I can do is add a trailer and gush a little about what a great job you did.

As Oliver Twist would say, "Please, sir . . . I want more!"

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_______________ Battle: Los Angeles - Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

[Gord Green]

A great movie! This may be looked at as what the "on the ground" activities were like during INDEPENDENCE DAY.

The story owes a bit of an homage to the so called "Battle of Los Angeles" that occurred in 1942.

The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as The Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to the rumored enemy attack by Japan and subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which took place from late February 24 to early February 25, 1942, over Los Angeles, California.

The incident occurred less than three months after the United States entered World War II in response to the Japanese Imperial Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the bombardment of Ellwood on February 23. Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the incident a "false alarm". Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up.



A photo published in the Los Angeles Times on February 26, 1942, has been cited by some ufologists and conspiracy theorists as part of evidence of an extraterrestrial visitation. They assert that the photo clearly shows searchlights focused on an alien spaceship; however, the photo was heavily modified by photo retouching prior to publication, a routine practice in graphic arts of the time intended to improve contrast in black and white photos.



Los Angeles Times writer Larry Harnisch noted that the retouched photo along with faked newspaper headlines were presented as true historical material in trailers for the film Battle: Los Angeles. Harnisch commented, "if the publicity campaign wanted to establish UFO research as nothing but lies and fakery, it couldn't have done a better job."

Some production illustrations for the film.









THE STORY :

A number of apparent meteors land in the world’s oceans, near 20 major coastal cities. The objects prove to be spacecraft containing hostile extraterrestrials. As Los Angeles (LA) is being evacuated, Marines from Camp Pendleton arrive, including Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, an Iraq War veteran. Nantz, who was to begin his retirement, is assigned to 1st Platoon, Echo Company, of the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines.

Under the command of 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez, the platoon arrives at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) established at Santa Monica Airport. The alien ground forces have no apparent air support, so the Air Force prepares to carpet bomb the Santa Monica area, and the platoon is given three hours to retrieve civilians from an LAPD station in West LA.

As they advance through LA, they are ambushed and suffer multiple casualties. Nantz takes marines Imlay and Harris to look for Lenihan, who is missing from the group. After fighting off an alien, they team up with some Army National Guard soldiers and an Air Force intelligence Technical Sergeant, Elena Santos.



At the police station, the makeshift platoon finds five civilians: veterinarian Michele, children Kirsten, Amy and Hector, and Hector's father Joe. A helicopter arrives to evacuate wounded Marines, but can not take on the weight of the civilians. During takeoff, it is destroyed by alien air units, killing Grayston, Guerrero, Lenihan and Simmons.
The Marines commandeer an abandoned transit bus for the evacuation.

En route, they deduce that the alien air units are drones that target human radio transmissions. Santos reveals that her mission is to locate the aliens' command and control center, as its destruction should deactivate the drones. When their bus comes under attack on an elevated freeway, the Marines rappel the group to street level. In the ensuing battle,



Marines Stavrou and Mottola and the remainder of the Army National Guard soldiers are killed, while both Joe and Lieutenant Martinez are wounded fighting the aliens. Martinez uses his radio to attract the aliens, then detonates explosives, sacrificing himself. Nantz in now in command of surviving personnel Santos, Imlay, Kerns, Lockett, Harris, Adukwu and the civilians, continuing their escape from the bombing zone. A news report interviews a scientist who speculates that the aliens are seeking Earth's liquid water for fuel while eradicating the human population.

The carpet bombing never happens. Reaching the FOB, the Marines find it destroyed and that the military is retreating from LA. The Marines plan to escort the civilians to an alternate extraction point. When Joe dies from his wounds, Nantz comforts Hector.



Lockett confronts Nantz regarding his brother, a Marine who, with four others, was killed during Nantz's last tour. They come to peace when Nantz explains that he continues to think of them, and recites each person's name, rank and serial number. Nantz motivates the group to move forward to honor their fallen comrades, including Joe for his bravery. They reach the extraction point and evacuate by helicopter.

In flight, the chopper experiences a brief loss of power. Nantz theorizes that they are flying near the alien command center, transmitting intense radio messages to its drones. He orders his unit to accompany the civilians while he stays to reconnoiter the area, but his fighters all join him. Searching through sewers, they confirm the presence of a large alien vessel.

Kerns radios in to request missiles, which Nantz manually directs using a laser designator while the others defend his position. Kerns is killed when a drone homes in on his radio, but the Marines succeed in routing a missile to the command module, which is destroyed. The uncontrolled drones fall from the sky, and the alien ground forces retreat.

The remaining fighters – Nantz, Imlay, Lockett, Harris, Adukwu and Santos – are evacuated to a base in the Mojave Desert, where they are greeted as heroes.

They are told that their successful method has been transmitted to the armies battling alien forces in 19 other cities, that Michele and the three children were rescued, and that they can now rest. Instead, they re-arm and join the armed force leaving to retake Los Angeles.



All and all this film should appeal to the hard core Military Sci-Fi aficionado. If your looking for deep characterization and complicated plot, look elsewhere. If your looking for adrenaline filled slam bang action this movie is your meat!

( Plot details from Wikapedia .)
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.