Common sense an alien concept in 'Battle: Los Angeles'

It's been a long time since we've had an old-fashioned, dumbed-down, apolitical war movie masquerading as an alien invasion drama, but “Battle: Los Angeles” fits the bill quite nicely.

War movie?

Actually, “Battle: Los Angeles” is more like a bloated, nonstop violent video game, except we don't have a controller to determine where the soldiers go and when they'll blast the alien creatures who've invaded the California coast line and scorched the land like Sherman's march from the sea.

The U.S. Marines in Jonathan Liebesman's noisy, numbing war film aren't the sharpest bayonets in the arsenal, either.

When they come into contact with their first alien fighter and presumably shoot it dead at the bottom of a backyard swimming pool, what do they do?

Send the corpse back to HQ so the military can study it and learn the nature of their extraterrestrial enemies?

Nope.

The Marines destroy it with a hand grenade.

Later, the same Marines want to sneak some civilians to safety while alien attack vessels constantly patrol the skies looking for targets to shoot with their tracer projectiles.

So, the Marines load the civilians and themselves into a huge, orange-colored metro bus and try to drive away, because the aliens won't notice that, will they?

“Battle” begins with a scene that actually occurs 20 minutes into the running time. U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Mike Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) and his troops are in a military helicopter entering a war zone over L.A. where flack explodes all around them and huge fireballs rise from the landscape.

Wait! It's a fake beginning.

The story suddenly reverts to 24 hours earlier, before the invasion, to give us quick snapshots of the generic, instantly forgettable military personnel who'll be potential alien targets for the remainder of the movie.

(Apparently the filmmakers thought their movie would be too boring if it didn't start with an action scene. Yet, the one they picked doesn't pack much action at all.)

Nantz's men include Lockett (Cory Hardrict), who supplies the obligatory back story conflict by wanting payback for his brother, killed while on a mission under Nantz's command.

Other Marines include Harris (R&B artist Ne-Yo), Santos (Michelle Rodriguez), Adukwu (Adetokumboh M'Cormack) and Guerrero (Neil Brown Jr.).

“Battle: Los Angeles” contains an unintended suggestion of racial supremacy, given that Eckhart's white sergeant turns out to be better at commanding his mostly nonwhite squad than his official superior officer, the untested Hispanic Lt. Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez).

Liebesman and cinematographer Lukas Ettlin shoot “Battle” in a classic news footage style with lots of quick zooms, meandering shots and hand-held close-ups.

Yet, screenwriter Chris Bertolini's dialogue sounds like warmed-up leftovers from old WW II movies.

“I didn't get this far on my pretty looks!” Santos shouts. “I”m ready for payback!”

Who's Bertolini fooling? When a character says, “You're going to be fine!” in a war movie, doesn't he know this is like a guy in a mad slasher movie saying, “I'll be right back”?

Liebesman, who also directed “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning,” gets one thing right. He builds suspense by holding off a long time before showing the aliens and their war ships.

What do the alien soldiers look like? The “Star Wars” storm troopers melded with the skeletons from “Jason and the Argonauts.”

For once, the TV commercial and trailers don't ruin all the surprises.

<b>“Battle: Los Angeles”</b>

<b>Two stars</b>

<b>Starring:</b> Aaron Eckhart, Michael Pena, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez

<b>Directed by:</b> Jonathan Liebesman

<b>Other:</b> A Columbia Pictures release. Rated R for language, violence. 117 minutes.