Michael Bay’s stint at the helm of the Transformers franchise proved he was ill-equipped when it came to sci-fi, so there were naturally a few quizzical eyebrows raised when it was first announced his protege Jonathan Liebesman would be diving into the genre with the $70 million Battle: Los Angeles.
Having been brought into the Platinum Dunes fold for Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, it was a big step up in terms of both budget and ambition for the filmmaker, but the end result was sorely lacking. The high concept pitch was a doozy, with a boots on the ground war story being used as the backdrop to a full-blown alien invasion epic, but it was Bay-lite on almost every level.
That being said, streaming has a funny old way of dragging the most forgotten follies back from the brink if they pack enough of a punch spectacle-wise, with Battle: Los Angeles the latest beneficiary on iTunes after securing a Top 10 spot in a handful of countries around the world, per FlixPatrol.
It wasn’t a flop after netting a stellar $211 million at the box office, but it didn’t perform well enough to convince Sony that sequels were worthwhile, even though reports offered that the studio was considering a localized expansion that would have seen additional installments deal with the intergalactic conflict in various cities around the world, which would have been a fascinating way to continue.
It may not have made enough money to spawn a franchise, then, but Battle: Los Angeles was dealt a definitive loss in the courtroom after Sony ultimately abandoned legal action against Greg and Colin Strause after claiming the visual effects duo had appropriated assets from the film to use as the basis for their own LA-set cosmic feature Skyline – which was released only four months previously. Ironically, both projects turned out to be equally forgettable, but it was the latter that birthed an IP.
