Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman.

Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridget Moynahan.

Over every large city, undetected meteorites are beginning to enter the atmosphere. But when these appear to slow down before impact, a sudden realization occurs. What seems like a harmless meteor shower soon turns into a full scale invasion from aliens of outer space, whose main objective is to destroy the indigenous population. The US military is soon called in as major cities around the country are being destroyed by the new invaders. Soon though, every city east of California is lost, and only Los Angeles has a chance of surviving.

Michael Nantz, a soon to be retired Marine, is reassigned to a platoon led by 2nd lieutenant Martinez, whose mission is to enter enemy territory and rescue a group of trapped civilians. It is a final attempt to clear LA of all humans residing in the alien populated district, so that they may unleash enough explosives to literally “flatten the land.” This leaves Nantz and his platoon 3 hours to complete the mission, before the US Air Force destroys the entire region, killing anything within it.

Don’t worry, the movie itself isn’t 3 hours long. It is though, longer than you’d think for a movie with such a small plot. Most of my synopsis was more background knowledge than actual story because without it, it would be about 2 sentences long.

As established, the plot is not very original or thought out, but I actually believe this movie is more character-based than plot-based, which I think is the reason why lots of people didn’t like it. It concentrated more on the characters than the story, which created a weak plot, but highly likeable and well rounded characters who everyone can relate to. There was one clichéd character, though, which kind of annoyed me. You’ve seen it before: the man who does great in training but when put out into a real battle zone, he can’t function properly. But other than him, I think this movie portrayed the Marines in a very authentic way, which helps the audience connect and relate to each character.

Most people, as previously stated, hate this way of filmmaking. But I, on the other hand, I’m okay with it, as long it’s still entertaining to watch. And it was; there were plenty of impressive battle sequences as well as some very suspenseful moments. Aaron Eckhart does very well to portray a damaged, old Marine Sergeant who’s past his physical prime, but who is still ready to lay his life down for his men.

Overall, this movie doesn’t stand out as one of the greats in action, with its weak and passive plot. But the intense battle sequences and well rounded characters somewhat makes up for its frailties. Battle Los Angeles is a fun and entertaining Saturday night movie, which will likely be forgotten by the next day.

Final Verdict: 3/5