#717 – Battle of Los Angeles (2011)

Battle of Los Angeles (2011)

Film review #717

Director: Mark Atkins

SYNOPSIS: Aliens have invaded earth, and soldiers at a Los Angeles military base are trying to fight them off. A pilot from 1942 mysteriously arrives, and it is believed he is the key to stopping the invasion…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Battle of Los Angeles is a 2011 film that is a mockbuster (rip-off) of the 2011 film Battle: Los Angeles (yes, it’s easy to confuse the two). Being produced by famed derivative churners The Asylum, you know to expect a cheap knock-off of a popular movie that has recently come out…except that Battle: Los Angeles was hardly successful or well received, which should immediately ring alarm bells.

The film is – in a departure from Battle: Los Angeles – based somewhat upon the supposed events of the air raid by Japanese air forces in 1941; except it was actually aliens, who have now come back to Earth to finish their invasion. The first part of the film gives us some shots of Aliens and fighter jets battling it out in the sky, rendered in not-so-convincing-CG. We see most of the first act take place on an army base, which is clearly the only place the producers could afford, as a bunch of non descript military types shout and panic. Suddenly a pilot from 1942 time travels and turns up out of nowhere, and it is believed he is the key to stopping the invasion. Somehow. This all comes out of nowhere and the film doesn’t get any better with making a cohesive storyline: next a woman with a sword from the shadowy organisation Majestic 12 turns up too, saying they need to get on board the Mothership to take it down, turning the film more into a cheap Independence day knock-off than it already was. This film is desperate to keep your attention by constantly throwing a bunch of unconnected tropes to carry it through to the end, and I suppose that’s what such a low-end production needs: it’s never going to take itself that seriously, but some amount of consistency would be nice.

There’s very little originality going on here: as mentioned, it just devolves into a cheap Independence Day with some extra nonsense to over-complicate it. There’s also not a whole lot of Los Angeles in the film. The characters are all fairly bland, apart from maybe the army sergeant who is the biggest cartoon character ever, firing his revolver at giant alien ships. This film is what it is meant to be: it’s a cheap derivative of another more successful film…that wasn’t successful anyway. It is arguably more interesting because it isn’t shackled by common sense or the necessity for a cohesive storyline. Cinematic slop not worthy of any real attention or beratement, that doesn’t make any real effort to make sense.