"Battle: Los Angeles" delights audiences with American patriotism

"It's not a great movie, but it is a thriller ride, fairly realistic depiction of Marines, and very rough-even the camera movement is unsettling and not a carefully crafted Hollywood story... it's ANTI-AVATAR to the bone."

This is an email I received from a friend recently after he saw "Battle: Los Angeles."

 Up until then, I wasn't sure after seeing all the negative reviews from film critics bashing the $100-million-plus budgeted alien invasion movie if I should go to a before noon showing Monday where the price of admission would be five bucks or go after noon and pay the $7.50.

I chose the before noon showing . But even after seeing "Battle: L.A.," I probably wouldn't have been too upset if I had paid the additional $2.50. 

"Marines are great heroes," my friend  wrote. "Americans are caring people, and aliens are  not giant peace-loving Smurfs but rather a predatory species looking for natural resources.It's the kind of movie that makes you ask, Shouldn't we have more arms for our troops?" 

My friend is not a fan of "Avatar" (2009). Neither am I.

Now that I have seen "Battle: L.A.," which grossed $36 million opening weekend, I can verify his comment that it is "ANTI-'AVATAR' to the bone."  

"Avatar" was nothing more than liberal bashing:  "I hate America – America is evil – America is responsible for 9/11."

-Battle: L.A." is the kind of movie John Wayne probably would have starred in just because it shows our nation's armed forces performing the kind of everyday heroics they continue to display on a daily basis overseas.  

At one point in the film, a soldier complements Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) for his "John Wayne" heroics in taking out one of the alien ships.  Then someone asks, "Who's John Wayne?" 

Perhaps the real question should not be "Who?" but "Where's John Wayne?" when it comes to the lack of positive war movies.

By that I mean, why aren't American forces the heroes and not the enemy?

I still have not seen Wayne's Vietnam war movie, "The Green Berets" (1968) but what I do know is "The Duke" liked to portray his characters as heroes, even if they died in battle, like he did portraying Davy Crockett in "The Alamo" (1960). 

I thank God I cannot remember the few negative Iraq war and war-on-terror-themed movies that have been released over the past 10 years.

Like last year's anti-Iraq war best picture winner,  "The Hurt Locker" (2008), none of those films did any box office business.

The reason? It was because of their negative portrait of America and our armed forces.  I was happy when Kathryn Bigelow won the best director Oscar last year.

 When I heard her dedicate her win to the men and women serving overseas, however, I found it a little hypocritical since "The Hurt Locker" is anything but positive when it comes to the Iraq war.

I just don't believe one can say they are for the nation's military and then bash the mission they have been sent to carry out.

That's what makes "Battle: L.A." such a refreshingly welcome change.

No, it's not going to receive any Oscar nominations but it's certainly not bad enough to receive any Razzies either.

With the exception of Eckhart's Nance, most of the characters lack so much depth that when some of the servicemen do go down, we don't know them well enough to care, while the jerky camera movements look as though half the film was shot using a handheld device, as in "The Blair Witch Project" (1999).  

The focus here is not so much the aliens plundering Mother Earth of its precious resources and wiping out civilization.

It's about the nation's military marching in to do a job no one else has the guts to do. In "Battle: L.A.,"  the United States Marines do it without question. There is no political grandstanding.

It would be no different than if this country came under attack by foreign invaders. 

I don't know what director Jonathn Liebesman and screenwriter Christopher Bertolini's intentions were when they made "Battle: Los Angeles," but the film offers refreshing ideas:   American patriotism and respect for our nation's military - something sorely lacking in a lot of today's liberal America-bashing movies.