Moviefreak.com
First things first; director Jonathan Liebesman’s (Darkness Falls, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) extra-terrestrial war epic Battle: Los Angeles is nothing more than a stripped down interstellar homegrown remake of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. From the way cinematographer Lukas Ettlin (Middle Men) shoots the action, to the how editor Christian Wagner (Fast & Furious) chops things together, to the gritty realism of Peter Wenham’s (The Bourne Ultimatum) production design, everything here looks, feels and sounds a lot like that 2001 Oscar-winning military opus.
Writer Chris Bertolini (The General’s Daughter) obviously studied the film as well. He keeps things focused entirely upon a single Marine unit lost amidst the chaos of an alien invasion on the streets of Los Angeles. Cut off from their command, working on their own, doing their best to protect a group of civilians, everything that happens to this ragtag bunch is a lot like what Josh Hartnett’s character and his team went through in Scott’s picture, just substitute faceless alien soldiers for Somali gunmen and you’ve more or less got the exact same scenario.
