World Invastion: Battle Los Angeles

After earning his spurs in the horror genre with films like The Curse of Darkness Falls and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, South African-born Jonathan Liebesman gets to venture into the currently popular subgenre of alien invasion films with a decent budget behind him on his latest film, World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles.

Actually, Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) was about to take his well-deserved retirement. But when strange meteors start hitting all over Earth and it quickly turns out to be an alien invasion, Nantz is assigned to a new platoon. Along with 2nd Lt. William Martinez's (Ramon Rodriguez) men, Nantz is tasked with rescuing a group of civilians who have broken free in a police station in the middle of alien-infested Los Angeles. The squad only has three hours to do this, after which the entire area is bombed by the Air Force. But Nantz and his troops quickly discover that the fight against the alien invaders is far more dangerous than anticipated. But Los Angeles cannot be allowed to fall and must be defended at all costs.

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles has been called a cross between Independence Day and Black Hawk Dawn by many critics. And while that comparison may seem a bit overused by now, it's just so accurate that it simply can't be ignored. As a pure action movie, the whole thing therefore works very well. The special effects are more than decent and the action sequences, aside from the headache-inducing shaky cam, are engaging and rousingly staged.

In contrast, the production is disappointing from a dramaturgical point of view. After the first promising moments, which catapult the viewer into the middle of the alien invasion, the plot jumps back a few hours and introduces the young soldiers from the platoon, whose leadership Nantz will take over a short time later. And this is where all the clichés that war movies have to offer are cranked down. Of course, there's the shot of a young Marine kissing his pregnant wife's belly before saying goodbye to her. There's the soldier about to take an important step in his relationship with his girlfriend. There's the boy who's still green behind the ears and is therefore teased by his comrades. And, of course, there's the wise-cracker with the big mouth. In the following, these protagonists throw each other every hackneyed phrase at the heads and it should be clear to every viewer quickly, which of the men will be the next to die. It would have been desirable if the makers had put a little more effort into the script. Because in itself the story, although not really new, is exciting enough to offer good action entertainment.

So World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles is at many points simply a cliché-laden hymn to the US military. Especially when compared to other recent alien films such as District 9 or Monsters, Liebesman's material battle fares rather poorly. And yet: the whole thing is not boring for a second. Especially the battle around the police station, from which the civilians are to be freed, has literally explosive tension. The bottom line is that World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles is a good entertainment film with a somewhat pale aftertaste. If good special effects and loud action are enough for you to have an entertaining evening at the cinema, you will be well served here. But if you also expect a substantial story and sophisticated dialogues, you should hope for the next alien invasion. All in all just worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp