Aliens come to Earth, seeking to exploit its resources for their own (always nefarious) ends at the expense of the dominant species - humans. But humans fight back, offering armed resistance against the seemingly overwhelming odds, and, despite initial set backs, keep on with grim determination and the hope of victory over the enemy.
Now, to watch something that follows this story idea with intelligence and insight, intrigue and a few other nice words beginning with the letter "I", one has to turn to that fantastic 1980s miniseries (not so sure about the TV series - both of them) of V. Sure, the effects were sometimes unspecial and the Visitor uniforms were a bright and easily spotted red, but those reptiles had real menace in that they used humanity's own weaknesses and vanities against it, and probably would have got away with it too if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.
However, for something that just uses the above storyline as an excuse for big explosions, the destruction of major monuments and the slaughter of thousands of a very uncontroversial ethnic minority (i.e., a made up one without any possibility of moral ambiguity in that they are Evil, Cannot be Negotiated With and Must Be Stopped) then you could do worse than see World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles.
The action is very action-y and explosions are very explosive. I knew what I was in for when I signed up to go see this film, and for the most part I got it in spades. A few minutes of superfluous scene setting to try and give a few of the hero/cannon fodder humans some sense of character started the film, but these quickly gave way to the raison d'etre for the film: bangs for my bucks.
The film may be spoken in English, but every scene is also subtitled in two subliminal languages in which I happen to be quite familiar (though I can't always claim fluency): Cliché and Bollocks. There is more Cliché than Bollocks spoken in the start of the film, as the heroic Marines and the small band of civilians meet up, get separated, get slaughtered, meet up again, and generally run around the ruined city trying to avoid the evil aliens and also avoid getting caught in friendly fire as well. This is all loads of fun, with lots of tightly paced action, and a satisfying number of people and material exploded in different ways. Only the unsteadycam shots made me feel a bit nauseous, and the incessant soundtrack sapped any tension or menace from scenes evidently meant to have me on the edge of my seat.
After about 90 minutes of that kind of action and destruction, the script writers apparently realised they weren't quite sure where to take things. So they choose this time to try and reintroduce personality and storylines for the remaining Marines (I say "try" as Generation Kill this is not), and shift the objective from something beyond immediate survival to the ultimate destruction of the enemy. Yup, Cliché takes second place to Bollocks, though the former's influence is still very strong.
So, the civilians are removed from the formulaic equation in about 2 minutes flat (it really was easy after all!) and the soldiers go off on their new mission, and prove their honour, mettle, guts, manliness (or in one case, womanliness) and Embody the Spirit of Humanity that will Never Be Oppressed and Never Surrender. yaddayadda, with the capitals writ large.
It was odd to see Aaron Eckhart in a film of this calibre (not so surprising to see Michelle Rodriguez; I always enjoy her bolshie attitude), but then it didn't really matter which actors were in the lead roles - acting chops were never going to be able to save this film from being anything other than rubbish.
The aliens themselves have some of the most ridiculous strategies and tactics ever, but then I can't really criticise a psychology that has only been created to serve plot - and at least these xenomorphs were not afraid of water, and their computer software did not seem to be Mac compatible (though I don't think anyone tried to control one of the alien ships with an i-phone app, so perhaps they were).
Yup, World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles is big, dumb action that is better seen on the big screen and with big sound that will overwhelm the more cognitive areas of your brain and force it to shut down so you can enjoy the explosions and gun fights - though, like me, you might struggle to keep it turned off whenever the action slows down and people do things like try and talk.
Verdict: World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles met all my expectations and, as my expectations were pretty low, that meant I was not disappointed, though I can't claim to have been pleasantly surprised. It's mostly a lot of fun, but probably only on the big screen and probably only just the once too. 4 games based on the movie of 10.
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