Call of Duty

A dozen or so Marines are on standby at a California base acting the way soldiers in war films do: they practice good natured high jinks and the cold comforts of routine. Staff Sergeant Nantz (a battle-worn looking Aaron Eckhart) is introduced as a middle-aged potential liability. In contrast to the movie warrior cliche, where the seasoned veteran does not want to admit that it's time to hang up the spurs (Clint Eastwood made a sub-career out of this), Nantz knows it's time to clear out the foot locker.

Other Marines are not so fortunate and fall into the cliche trap: there's the young Marine about to get married, and the tough female warrior soon joins the outfit (Michelle Rodriquez). Having noble plans for the future has become movie short hand for cannon fodder. If you don't believe me, see the fate that befalls the young soldier who shows fellow combatants pictures of his wife in any movie. Still, a strong cast along with leisurely character development leads to an emotional investment which pays off when the bullets start flying.

The soldiers are abruptly called to action. A meteor shower has entered our solar system and is on an intercept course for Earth. The tension mounts quickly when it is discovered that these meteors are not natural, but conceal spacecraft of some kind. Worse still, those spacecrafts house technologically-advanced aliens, hell-bent on conquering Earth. They launch a well-orchestrated global-scale invasion by positioning a dozen huge motherships in the airspace over the world’s most important cities.

This we have seen before, however, Battle: Los Angeles deviates from the battle plan at this point. The film cleverly knows that we have seen aliens who are hunters (Predator and Predator 2), aliens who are monsters (The thing, The Alien series, The Blob), cuddly aliens (E.T.), humorous aliens (Men In Black), aliens who are giant insects (Starship Troopers), aliens who come to assimilate with us (The Puppet Masters, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), aliens who kill from their spaceships (War of the Worlds).

But we have never seen any highly advanced aliens who get out of their ships as soldiers, eschewing the easy “death-from-above” scenario, and go hand-to-hand/alien-a-mano. These aliens have realized the notion of war which has escaped Bill Clinton: you cannot win a war

from the air. You must put boots on the ground. The enemy in this case displays familiar military tactics; they exhibit a rigid military hierarchy, set booby traps, ambushes and perform quadrant searches. The aliens have an evil dedication to their cause rarely seen after Nazi Germany. They have their armaments surgically grafted onto their limbs. Their motto could be: PEACE IS NOT AN OPTION.

Battle: Los Angeles is so up-close, gritty and personal that it is not really an alien movie at all. It’s a war turned upside down. It carves out a new genre with a Ka-bar: The Hand-to-Hand Urban Guerilla Alien Combat Movie. Worldwide extermination on a personal level. As you watch, gnawing questions run through your head: Are the aliens sadistic? Are they simply competitive? Do they enjoy the destruction? Are they simply following orders? We never find out, and this adds to the lasting impression. Audience members are forced to fill in the gaps. A sense of helplessness engulfs the viewer as he or she begins to realize the true depth of the advanced alien weaponry in play, and instinctively attempts to calculate the odds of Earth coming out ahead. The odds against Earthlings would make a Vegas bookie giggle with excitement: the aliens have remote-controlled drones, projectile weapons that fry whatever they hit, and alien soldier-directed walking missile launchers (they look sort of like giant John Deere push-mowers).

Amidst the intergalactic mayhem, the film adheres to strict military codes: 1. Marines never give up. 2. No one is left behind. 3. Civilians are protected at all costs. All science-fiction and war movie fans. Go see this movie. Your galaxy needs you!