One of the titles that made a big splash at Comic-Con 2010 was Battle: Los Angeles and our anticipation for B:LA was only heightened by the release of the chilling theatrical trailers. Hot on the heels of the effective Battle: Los Angeles Super Bowl XLV TV spot comes an actual scene from the film that should get your adrenaline pumping.
Columbia Pictures has so far promoted the gritty alien invasion drama as being in the vein of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, and this first clip from Battle: Los Angeles seems to confirm just that.
Dubbed outside the States as World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles, the movie revolves around an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth, but focuses its gaze primarily on the experiences of a Marine squad based in the City of Angels. Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) stars as the group’s leader, Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, alongside the likes of Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar), Michael Peña (World Trade Center), Bridget Moynahan (I, Robot), Corey Hardrict, and numerous others.
Director Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans) has kind of a weak track record, having churned out horror flicks like Darkness Falls and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning in the past, but it looks as though he may have hit his stride by turning to the sci-fi genre with Battle: Los Angeles.
Check out the clip from Battle: Los Angeles (courtesy of Yahoo! Movies) below:
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The idea of accompanying soldiers into the heat of battle against technologically-superior aliens is actually rather refreshing. Past invasion movies have devoted so much time to following the experiences of everyday people and families, it’s become an overused approach by this point. Warfare against other people is harsh enough, but Battle: Los Angeles will up the stakes even more by making the opposition that of heavily armed aliens capable of lighting up the atmosphere like it’s Doomsday.
If this scene is anything to go by, Liebesman looks to have succeeded in filming his sci-fi war flick in a style that still captures the chaotic and disorienting experience of being caught in the crossfire, but avoids reducing everything to a shaky, unflattering blur. It’s a difficult trick to manage, but it’s something that most of the best war movies (like Saving Private Ryan) have pulled off well.
Concern can now turn to whether or not the characters in Battle: Los Angeles will be as captivating as the action and F/X work. The haunting visual of a once-thriving city reduced to burning wreckage will certainly have an impact, but it’s the people at the heart of the story that’ll make or break the film at the end of the day. Given the acting talent involved, there’s good reason to be optimistic.
Battle: Los Angeles gets underway next month on March 11th.
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that was intense,sounds like an inception track haha
how the hell can a 30sec clip be classed as ‘intense’, this didn’t establish anything besides letting viewers know there’s gonna be terrible camera work and weird looking ‘aliens’
…I dont see how you get terrible camera work…it looked good. And we havent seen the aliens except out of focus so we dont know if they will look weird.
If the camera work had been shaky or they had done nothing but close ups of the actors faces without any reference points then I would have agreed with you Jwalka. The scene was an effective way to show that the aliens actually have the ability to reason and evaluate situations while attacking and killing their enemy.
Agree that this is a great approach. Kinda tiring and ridiculous that civilians always fare better in alien battles than trained soldiers — just as stupid as portraying the misunderstood-good-guy-prisoners ruled over by corrupt guards in every prison movie.
TESTIFY MY BROTHA!
This film is going to be one of the best of the year, along with Thor and The Adjustment Bureau. Going to bet on it.
You just raped my childhood vision of prison films.
That’s ironic!
Oh, its scripted?
Ruined,,,,
WOW nuff said
i still dont get why the ALIENS look like damned robots (to be more specific transformers). did anyone notice the annoyingly pointless shaky cam and ‘twirling’ going on (with the camera) right after they start shooting ? i sure as hell hope those 2 things aren’t consistent throughout this trash otherwise i’m not even gonna download it
What do Aliens look like?
Again I dont see any of this in the video…are you sure your watching the video above?
take a look at past alien movies, they have a more natural look, whilst in the PoS they look like damned transformers.
Only cheap skates download movies illegally
OWWWWWWWW you called him a cheap skates lmao
i’m not gonna pay hollywood one cent for making the same crap over and over, seriously take a look at how many E.T related movies that are coming out this yr then talk.
I agree Jwalka. Conceptual artists are to blame, they seem to copy “The Matrix” look a lot. Im sick and tired of tentacles and organic shapes. Throw a square or rectangle in there, mix it up.
organic shapes are good, the robotic stuff is what pisses me off, i mean if they have the capabilities/technology to travel across space and come kick our asses then wtf would they be using rockets and robotic materials?
they should be using plasma cannons and weps of that sort not human weps (like rockets)
You are basing your concept of aliens merely on previous articles of science-fiction and video games.
What I got from the trailer is that while the “aliens” exist from another planet they are not far different compared to humans, hence they are coming to harvest Earth. If they require the need for our resources than how much more advanced can they be? Surely we do not have the sufficient amount of energy to fuel their “plasma cannons”.
Does anyone else get a ‘Gears Of War’ vibe from that last picture? Brilliant!!
This clip seemed edited. I’m cautiously optimistic for this.
Will the “real” alien invasion be staged?
Just typing randomly.
Well I guess that makes sense, however even if they needed our resources what would stop them from indirectly/directly taking out our power or the planets magnetic field just long enough to erase every human beings mind?
I mean come on let’s think big here!
I usually find newer sci fi flicks too pretty, or at least too “unrealistic” looking. This time however (I saw the trailer at the movie theater), and actually enjoyed the way this looked visually, it was much more realistic in tone and effects similar to Black Hawk Down’s mood and style.
The invading aircraft looked remarkably realistic compared to the highly polished cgi spectacles by Spielberg, Lucas, and Cameron, movies of late.
It amazes me that people seem to be unaware that most civilizations end with cities burning and the population butchered or obsorbed into the invaders own numbers. Its been going on like that for thousands of years and will continue until mankind evolves beyond our need to wage war.
An alien invasion would be swift and sweeping and merciless. Why should a being from another race have any feelings for a back water civilization that is using resources and living area they plan on taking. Nor can we say what type of weapons and tactics they will be using. In this sort of warefare every person would have to pick up arms and fight or they would be eradicated. I am wondering how much of this they will show.
I can just see an alien crew/ship checking out Earth and they intercept Battle LA.
Let’s keep going , agreed,,,
You think given the actors involved is reason enough to be optimistic about the characters being captivating? Did it ever occur to anyone that the reason the marketing has shown no semblance of character is because they aren’t captivating?
Also, terrible dialogue regarding the dog scene. “Who’s the idiot naming their dog, Glenn?” People can name their dogs whatever they want.
Yeah it does seem out of place. But soldiers are often renown for crude and inappropriate language, so perhaps they are just trying to capture the authenticity in this situation.
Its “Shootout: Alien Bagdad” lol…sorry. Have to say I like it, like the angle this is (or appears) to be aimed at and focusing inside what a potential military response would be to a true “home defensive” situation against an alien invasion (by aliens that just don’t seem as advanced as they ought to be…otherwise it’ll be a real short film…what? Orbital bombardment with genetic specific virus..whoopsss!).
Anyway, like the films look still