World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles

Plaisir coupable. Tir, béton, fumée, tir, métal, explosions, encore tir... et encore la même chose en boucle. Une "guerre des machines" spectaculaire dans les rues démolies et poussiéreuses de L.A., pas aussi élégante et raffinée que dans les films de Bay, mais réaliste et crasseuse. Les dialogues démentiels et le pathos hardcore ne dégradent pas le film, mais lui donnent une touche de recul et d'amusement proche de "Starship Troopers". La question reste de savoir si c'est intentionnel. En tout cas, il est clair que Liebesman se révèle être un réalisateur d'action respectable et c'est le film dont je rêvais lorsque j'avais 14 ans après avoir vu "Terminator 2". (10/03/2011)

Wow! A film where hostile aliens invade earth is a fan of those who want to defend it (the American army)? Who would have said? I understand that not everybody will like Battle Los Angeles, it’s far from a great film, but that several reviews will say that it’s an almost unwatchable epic fail... Really? It might be so for those whose ideology makes them prefer a film that relativises the evils committed by Islamic terrorists over one that celebrates the efforts of the American army. Battle Los Angeles is a very well made, but fairly stupidly written action film, which is the best possible result if you’ve come to terms with the fact this won’t be any new smart science fiction classic. The film is unbearably “American” in only three scenes, but that’s more than compensated by all the cool moments. To relax at the cinema? Ideal! 8/10 PS: Everyone (including Sony) is comparing Battle Los Angeles to other films, so: Independence Day: BLA is more realistic, dirty and, fortunately, without humour, and a little less pathetic. Cloverfield: Even though BLA isn’t shot with hand-held cameras, the action scenes give the impression that the cameraman is right there, and the monsters are shown as if by the way. Black Hawk Down: I related to the soldiers in both films in a similar way: very little. The action is just as realistic, but in BLA, unlike BHD, it didn’t bore me in the end thanks to – I admit – the more interesting enemies. 2012: BLA is a thousand times more compelling that Emmerich’s latest attempt at catastrophe. Skyline: The low-budget flick by the Straus brothers is worse in every aspect (and in some, like the direction, much worse), with the exception of the monster design. District 9: Blomkamp’s début is much smarter, but the craftsmanship is at the same level. Besides, whereas BLA is silly from the get go, District 9 becomes silly in the second half, which makes it inconsistent. Starship Troopers: The propaganda in BLA is about 5% of the “theoretically serious” Starship Troopers. (10/03/2011)

Haters gonna hate, although in terms of this film, I find the amount of hateful flame quite misguided. Regarding the combination of a war film with an alien invasion, I can think of half a dozen directors who could distill this into the ultimate genre crossover, and yet I still find relative satisfaction with this film. Liebesman drains the budget in the right direction, i.e., with great special effects and the impressive set design of the "American Mogadishu." Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough talent to function in more than just the field of quality craft. In the deluge of pathos, I searched in vain for stronger characters to give it more personal moments, to lighten it up with the occasional catchphrase, and if they did shout, to do so in grandiose style. Liebesman is just skimming the surface of all this but no one is fully into it. Instead, he lets the unit proceed according to the laws of video games until the final fireworks display, preceded by resisting an onslaught for three minutes. Who cares that it’s not logical? I’m giving it a better 3 stars, but after it's pulled from the movie theaters, no one is going to remember it. (07/04/2011)

A grandiose contribution to the giant weird films about capitalist realism, covered with a very sparse "docu-camera" veil and a dynamic war action ala Black Hawk Down. Except for the occasionally successful Scott / Bigelow thefts, Liebesman has completely failed - the film is absolutely dysfunctional, uninteresting, completely devoid of emotion and literally overflowing with hellish dialogues that stick repulsively in the chosen pseudo-authentic tone of storytelling (... the U.S. didn't sponsor the film. Marine Corps by chance?). Sometimes the visual (repulsive digital characters) creaks a lot, but it disappears in the cacophony of all the components. A movie with no balls, no rhyme, no reason, no magic. Perfect filling of the epic fail box. Did anyone even read the script before they approved the budget? P.S. For nitpickers... Capitalist realism is not my idea, but a commonly used term - it really works for propaganda films such as Independence Day or Battle Los Angeles (threats to democratic values by primitive destructive force from the unknown, military leaders or politicians who lead the collective unwaveringly to victory...) Ideology lives long and blissfully... (07/03/2011)

The rate of use of the word civilian greatly exceeds the rate of fire. In fact, it is used to liberally that I started thinking that they were trying to make it the most universal expression in modern English - the mind boggles at all the places where creators wanted to slip in their darned civilian. So at least it made them happy, even if they couldn’t do the same for the audience. A movie with civilian (read spoiled) shaky shots where even civilians (read boars) are lost for words. (22/05/2011)

I am not the target audience and I already knew what I was getting into with this film, so I was not disappointed in any way. However, I will not give it a higher rating just because of that. The Cold War ended, and so it was necessary to find a new target and a worthy opponent for the American marines who could resist them for at least a few hours. It is not so much because it is pathetic, pro-American, and who knows what else, it is simply because it is too dull, monotonous, and predictable for me. As a teenager, I would have definitely added a star, but I stand by my review. Overall impression: 25%. (19/04/2011)

It's propaganda. Join the U.S. Marines because they're the best men on the planet and John Wayne is proud of them. World Invasion is a guilty pleasure. Despite the idiotic screenplay which is full of pathos, there are some damn spectacular action sequences, explosions, shootings and footage of a beautifully broken Los Angeles. A comparison with Crysis would be spot on. All it’s missing is a nanosuit. Aaron Eckhart as "Mr. Staff Sergeant" is the kind of military Jesus with a human face who makes the hardest of decisions and is seen as "heroic". The other soldiers are here to die (for him) or to follow him into one last battle. Yes, it’s that much of a cliché. But that doesn't matter (it's actually an incredible source of fun that keeps you smiling nearly all the way through), on top of that everything looks and sounds so good - Bryan Tyler creates a very nice soundtrack behind the heroic babbling and machine gun fire. "You'll be surfing soon, Simmons." (26/03/2011)

It’s incredibly how Liebesman handled this project. With a relatively small budget, he created a monumental-looking (title, trailer, posters) and yet very modest sci-fi film, full of very impressive visual effects and absolutely thrilling action (shots and panoramic camera sweeps like Michael Bay). The protagonists may not be as cool as in other films, but that's not the main focus here. In essence, it's a mix of all possible films, and everyone takes exactly as much of their own portion as they want. It has pathos, emotions, action, excellent sound design, quotes, likeable actors, heroism – basically everything we expect from this kind of movie. It lacks a budget for an even bigger inferno, but the director knew exactly what he was doing. With a bigger budget, it wouldn't be this cute winking at the film world, but a proper mess. PS: The best aliens in terms of philosophy and execution still remain those from Independence Day. (20/06/2011)

Black Hawk Down meets District 9 and Independence Day. A great cliché lurks around every corner. A group of soldiers (the commander "with a past", his white, black and yellow men, who also of course include a female pilot who "happens" to know a lot, and of course a few adult and child civilians) are fighting with aliens who resemble mechanical Predators with the intelligence of inmates of an institute for space idiots. It is done very effectively, but unfortunately in a completely undramatic and empty way. Because of the stupid script, I didn't believe in the characters at all. A big mistake and a shame all in one. That said, certain scenes are really good, it just needed to be more original and steal less from other films. That gets it two and a half mediocre stars. (08/04/2011)

Another shining proof that only perfect visual effects and bombastic action can't provide enough for a whole film. Battle Los Angeles is nothing more than a cold parade of loud explosions, falling buildings and moronic dialogue lacking a coherent script or even a hint of human emotion to give the action on screen some authenticity. Liebesman may handle the action with bravado, but an elite director should at least be able make a juicy and medium-rare steak out of the premise, and not just throw a slab of raw and cold meat at the viewer (anyone who's seen Black Hawk Down knows what I'm talking about)... 50% (29/06/2013)

Une bonne histoire et de bons effets numériques avec des extraterrestres crédibles, mais un scénario si mauvais et involontairement comique qu'il peut rivaliser avec Phénomènes de Shyamalan. Une fois suffit. (08/03/2011)

If you enjoy movies where the characters and the story are not important to you, but you mainly indulge in military technology and authenticity, you might quite like the war sci-fi film "World Invasion". It's not as authentically captured as "Black Hawk Down", which is absolutely perfect in terms of depicting battles, but it still has a good dose of realism. It's not about who the attacker is, actually. It's not about the individual characters either. Their fates are simply not interesting, and I have to admit that I didn't care what happened to them, even though the film tried to convince us in the beginning that we would have a war drama in front of us, where soldiers are portrayed in depth as real people with real fates. It doesn't happen, and you actually don't care about the characters, so you watch an army dealing with something from space. The effects are quite good, but nothing exceptional; the best part is simply the combat action. The dialogues between the soldiers don't really work, but once it comes to weapons, the film is just excellent. The shooting is so believable that it can truly draw you into the story. Otherwise, the film doesn't deserve your attention, especially not in the cinema. I'm a bit surprised that this film was released in cinemas here as well because there are more interesting pieces that deserve more attention on the big screen in multiplexes. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/07/happy-feet-2-bobr-cislo-4-musketyri.html (23/02/2013)