A couple weeks ago, I saw "Battle: Los Angeles" (2011). I went in expecting a sort of modern retelling of "Independence Day" (1996) with a shaky cam and lots of Aaron Eckhart's chin. I love the America vs. Aliens story because, unlike any other conflict, you can support full−fledged genocide during the movie, you can completely glorify the violence and it's totally cool because they are green people who want our planet.
And you know what? I got a ton of what I wanted and more. It's a story about a small unit of U.S. Marines shooting up aliens for Amurrica because we ain't retreating! No one can sympathize with the invading aliens so screw 'em! Blow 'em all to hell! And why did I like "Battle: Los Angeles" so much? It's because it didn't break any new ground — it stuck completely to genre conventions, was filled to the brim with military movie cliches and plot contrivances and it was totally awesome.
Tropes, or cliches, are an essential tool for filmmakers. It gives the audience something recognizable to hook onto — the thief doing one last job, the aging athlete trying to get back into the spotlight for one final hurrah, the prostitute with a heart of gold, the wise and sagely janitor. It's like how the bad guys in the "Tron" (1982, 2010) series glow red and the good guys glow blue. It's a quick and easy method for the moviemakers to dive into the story they want to tell while establishing a world that isn't too complicated for viewers to follow.
When I was a kid, I would refuse to sleep in a new place without my little stuffed Dalmatian dog Ace because no matter where I was (a friend's house, the backwoods of New Hampshire, an abandoned circus, a basement torture dungeon), if I had Ace, I had something familiar to hold onto.
That's what tropes do — if movies were actually like real life, everyone would have complicated motivations and conflicted backgrounds. How many clear−cut bad guys have you met in real life? But how many evil Nazi scientists trying to raise an undead army have you seen in movies? Sure, there are movies that attempt to avoid tropes, but they are hard to find. If you want, you can get lost in the world of tropes at TvTropes.org (I would personally recommend starting at "Flanderization" and wandering out from there). But be warned: I have accidentally spent many hours cruising that site.
Just off the top of my head, some of the familiar tropes used in "Battle: Los Angeles" are: the old grizzled sergeant who had a rough last tour of duty overseas and wants to retire; the baby−faced private who has barely seen the world yet (and will invariably be separated from his unit and forced to man up through his trials); a brand−new lieutenant and expecting father who has yet to prove his leadership abilities in combat; a shaken and weary warrior who has difficulty coping with the stress of what he's done; Michelle Rodriguez being that rough−and−tumble Latina soldier (she is basically a living, breathing trope in herself); and my personal favorite, the speech to the frightened child who needs to become a brave soldier in order to get through the rough times ahead.
The story that "Battle: Los Angeles" told has been told over and over. They didn't do a damn new thing in the genre and will probably be remembered as just another high−budget entry into the books. But there's something to appreciate about that, because I have an alien−killing quota to hit every year and it's nice to get it out of the way without having to watch "Independence Day" again.
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