BOTTOM LINE: Doing an alien invasion movie in the style of a war of film is quite interesting, but the horribly clichéd script, Americana-marine jibes and just general war-scene fatigue make the whole experience of watching this film tiresome.

THE GOOD: Director Jonathan Liebesman was certainly inspired by films like ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ in creating this tale of an alien invasion force that starts attacking humanity. The opening scenes are quite efficient in getting to the main event, and the doco-style images work well in this instance, particularly when setting up the main character of Staff Sargent Michael Nanz (an excellent Aaron Eckhart). Although set in Los Angeles, the film clearly sets up a narrative that the whole world is under attack which is a welcome reprieve from other alien invasion films where it seems like only America is under attack. Before long, Nanz becomes part of a crack marine team sent in to get the last civilians out of Los Angeles, but they get bogged down in the streets fighting aliens, which is essentially the whole movie. The movie works to varying degrees in the battle scenes; much of what is presented from a visual standpoint is quite engaging and harrowing, with the aliens themselves used to good effect and not gimmicky. The scenes of a destroyed Los Angeles are well realised on screen, particularly the sequence when the marines arrive at a destroyed Santa Monica airport. “Battle: Los Angeles” is worth checking out at least for the battle scenes, and as a different take on the alien invasion film.

THE BAD: The script for this film is horribly clichéd; they threw in every cliché except the kitchen sink, and despite Aaron Eckhart’s best efforts to present a genuine performance, the cast in general have to suffer through the same old tricks that present themselves in a movie like this. The heroic civilian, to the soldier with a bad past and the other soldier who holds a grudge, you cannot help but feel ten steps ahead of all this, particularly when these characters should get over all this in the presence of such a dangerous, and foreign enemy. This is further compounded by the typical gung-ho marine talk that permeates through every scene in the movie. Perhaps the final point to note is that even though the war scenes are quite effective, after a while, they become repetitive and tiresome, particularly after you have been sitting there watching it for two hours non-stop. You walk out feeling fatigued by what you have seen.