BATTLEFIELD: FALL OF THE WORLD (2022)

BATTLEFIELD: FALL OF THE WORLD (2022)

Tagline: Nope

(Sci-Fi, Action, Alien Invasion) [PG-13]

Note: This movie was not given an MPA rating. It likely would have landed a PG-13 or even a PG. 

“I’m a guide, I never miss valuable information. I found this structure map in the restroom.”

In this one, Earth has been completely decimated by aliens and the last defense against them is various units of the Earth Union Defense Army which has soldiers from various nations but is based in China. Each “hellhound” alien as they are called has its own shield mechanism making it virtually invincible. The humans have found EMP (electromagnetic pulse) crystals that are able to disrupt the alien's signals between each other and their defense mechanisms. The problem is getting to it and deploying it. Cheng, a young survivor against the alien onslaught, is now the reluctant guide for Gao Ren and a few loyal soldiers to turn the tide of the war against annihilation. 

First off, this film features fantastic alien design work. We get a super crazy opening battle. The CGI is decent for the most part in spite of a lot of crying about it in the reviews, but the sound department fails when it comes to the hellhounds moving around. They are big enough to where you should feel they have weight. and you can hear their steps. In one situation we do hear it when it lands, and it sounds like metal. Pretty odd when it’s clear that thing landed in the dirt. 

Regarding the characters, this thing mostly focuses on a part of the Earth Union Defense Army. Gao Ren is the leader. Andre is the sniper. Knight Lija is the raider chick. Johan “Papa” is the grenadier. He speaks English which is pretty rare for films out of China. At least the ones I’ve seen. Gao Ren’s backstory is pretty heavy, but almost no other character has a background that is even remotely expanded on. Cheng who is he guide gets a lot of lines, but mostly just keeps talking about how he thought he was going to have a normal life before these aliens screwed it up. 

The acting and directing are pretty great. So that really wasn’t an issue for me. This does come across as a CGI-heavy B-movie in some ways, but it’s still vastly superior to the kinds of films that THE ASYLUM is putting out and even studios like LIONSGATE, etc. 

Only a few of the action sequences are overly cartoony or at least like they were done by a video game company. We also have a few weird plot points that keep happening over and over. I guess when it’s the end of the world, you can just fire millions of bullets at aliens that are bulletproof. It seems like someone would just say…” You know what, bullets don’t work, let’s save them for opportunity pirates and stuff like that, because right now we are just wasting resources”. 

Not sure if this was meant to just kind of end like it did, but the final scrawl kind of gives away the parts we don’t see. It’s pretty odd.

Overall I have to give this a 3 out of 7. I didn’t hate the CGI as much as some did, but there isn’t enough storyline here to keep this from feeling pretty generic outside of the alien design. This thing also has the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK problem. This means it is largely shot backward with a super epic battle at the beginning leading to a lackluster last act. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF RABBIT HOLE FILM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.