Battle: Los Angeles
Directed by
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Produced by
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Written by
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Starring
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Ne-Yo
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Music by
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Cinematography
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Editing by
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Studio
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Distributed by
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Release date(s)
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March 11, 2011
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Running time
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116 minutes
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Country
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Language
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Budget
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$70 million
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Box office
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$211,819,354
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Plot
In April 2011 ,large objects, thought to be meteorites, land in the oceans near several major coastal cities. The objects are discovered 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 had lost his squad during his tour in Iraq. In the film's opening Nantz was officially retiring, but because of the attack is instead made the acting platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon, 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 apparent air support, and the Air Force plans to saturate bomb the Santa Monica area. The platoon is tasked with rescuing 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. They team up with 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: 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, but it cannot take the civilians. As the helicopter takes off, it is obliterated by newly arrived alien aircraft.
The Marines commandeer a city bus for evacuation. They also vivisect a wounded alien and, with the help of Michele, find a weak spot in the torso. They also learn that the alien aircraft are remote-controlled drones that 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 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. Marines Stavrou (Gino Anthony Pesi) and Mottola (James Hiroyuki Liao) and several others 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 surviving Marines and 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 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 Iraq, 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.
Battle: Los Angeles Video Collection
Cast
** AaronEckhart as USMC SSgt. Michael Nantz,
** Ramon Rodriguez as USMC 2ndLt. William Martinez, 1st Platoon's acting
commander
** WillRothhaar as USMC Cpl. Lee "Cowboy" Imlay
** CoryHardrict as USMC Cpl. Jason "Cocheez" Lockett, younger brother of
Cpl. Dwayne G. Lockett who was killed in SSgt. Nantz's previous tour.
** Jim Parrack
as USMC LCpl. Peter J. "Irish" Kerns
** Gino Anthony Pesi as USMC Cpl. Nick C.
"Stavs" Stavrou
** Ne-Yo as USMC Cpl. Kevin J. "Specks" Harris, Cpl.
Stavrou's friend
** James Hiroyuki Liao as USMC LCpl. Steven
"Motorolla" Mottola (nickname spelled "Mottorola" in DVD
subtitles).
** BridgetMoynahan as Michele, a veterinarian
** Noel Fisher as USMC PFC Shaun "Casper" Lenihan, Cpl. Imlay's friend
** Adetokumboh M'Cormack as USN HM Jibril A. "Doc"
Adukwu
** Bryce Cass as Hector Rincon
** MichaelPeña as Joe Rincon, Hector's father
** Michelle Rodriguez as USAF TSgt. Elena Santos, 61 ABW
** Neil Brown, Jr. as USMC LCpl. Richard
"Motown" Guerrero
** TaylorHandley as USMC LCpl. Corey T. "Point Break" Simmons
** Joey King
as Kirsten, Michele's niece
** JessicaHeap as Jessy
** Lucas Till
as USMC Cpl. Scott L. Grayston
** Kenneth Brown, Jr. as ARNG CPL
Richard Oswald, 40th ID
** Jadin Gould as Amy, Kirsten's sister
** Joe Chrest as USMC 1stSgt. John Roy, SSgt. Nantz' superior and friend
** E. Roger Mitchell as USMC Capt. D. Heffler
** Rus Blackwell as USMC LtCol. J.N. Ritchey (credited as
LtCol. K.N. Ritchie)
** Susie Abromeit as Amanda
** Brandi Coleman as Cherise, Cpl. Harris'
fiancée
** Elizabeth L. Keener as Kathy Martinez, 2ndLt.
Martinez' pregnant
wife
** DavidJensen as Dr. L. Boyd, M.D., LCpl. Kerns' psychiatrist
** Lena Clark
as Chris
** NzingaBlake as HM Adukwu's sister
** TarynSouthern as Kate, the beach reporter
** Jim Dever as USMC SgtMaj. Dever
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. Liebesman also drew inspiration from YouTube videos of Marines fighting in Fallujah for the look of the film. 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." Instead standard film was used, intercutting footage from three different cameras. 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. 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. 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.
MichelleRodriguez (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. The filmmakers drew upon this historical event in an attempt to help
ground the film in reality. 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." The actors went through three weeks of boot
camp, in order to learn how to realistically operate as a marine platoon.
In addition, Eckhart had done training with the Marines for a few months
beforehand in weapons training and drills. On set, military technical
advisors worked with the actors to ensure they gave a realistic
performance. 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. 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. The invaders were designed by Paul Gerrard, 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." 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. Liebesman also confirmed that the aliens are invading for the Earth's natural resources, specifically because the Earth is 70% covered with water. Filming took place from September 2009 through December 2009 in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana (with some scenes filmed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, CA). Louisiana was chosen instead of Los Angeles mainly due to financial advantages. 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.
Video game
Reception
Critical response
The film's reception was generally negative. Most critics praised Aaron Eckhart's performance and the special effects, but criticized the cliched script and the editing. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 35% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 193 reviews, with an average score of 4.8/10. 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".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."
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