World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles

Staff Sergeant Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) was preparing for retirement. But when an apparent cluster of meteors turns out to be an alien invasion, Nantz embarks on one final mission. He is part of a platoon sent to Los Angeles to rescue a handful of civilians - and they only have 3 hours before the military nukes Los Angeles.

With time running out and obstacles around every corner, 'Battle Los Angeles' is a thrilling action adventure fantasy. The action sequences are fast and amazingly well done. The visual effects are stunning. The freeway scene in particular was awesome!

Does 'Battle Los Angeles' offer anything we haven't seen before in an alien invasion movie? Maybe not, but it surely was a hell of a joy ride! It has a simple premise without surprising twists or a complicated storyline. There's action all the way, and a very nice finale. This was pure entertainment!

I went into this movie with low expectations after the relative disappointment which was skyline, a film that promised so much from the trailer and delivered far less.

However, im glad to say any misgivings I had were quickly expelled. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't the greatest film ever made, and in many ways it fails to hold a candle to the likes of independence day, which in my opinion is one of the greatest films of its type ever made. It does however, bring a much more up close and personal aspect to an alien invasion. Its more like watching a war filmed in Iraq or something, but that in itself is what separates it from a muddle of recent alien invasion movies that fails to ignite any kind of fire in the mind.

The film moves at an unrelenting pace, with good action sequences and cgi to boot, its predictable at times and the ending fails to come up with something clever or original, but hey ... you cant have everything !!!

This is what I would call an underdog, a movie that I probably skipped due to the average ratings but boy was I wrong.

Our premise is that earth is being attacked unexpectedly by overpowered alien forces, presumably for our planet resources.

And notice I say presumably, because all we can do is presume. The aliens never attempt to communicate and they just attack to kill. This is an ongoing theme in the movie. We never really know who the enemy is, what they want, how they operate, how to kill them. And this creates a mystery, atmosphere and a very realistic perspective. Come to think about it, if aliens attacked we also wouldn't know what's happening and we would be looking for clues to figure things out while we are defending and hiding from extermination. Talk about terror!

Action scenes are very good, alien weapons/overall style are imaginative and (fairly) original and direction/acting are solid and manage to convey agony and a sense of fighting for a cause.

Give this movie a fair chance, it doesn't disappoint at all, in fact it is one of the better ones in the genre - provided you like action movies and the alien invasion topic.

This is movie I've never seen before. Watched it today on Netflix. It is great movie with emotional moments and fantastic action. Negative reviews are just rude and making you skip a good action movie.

Battle: Los Angeles finds Marine Staff Sergeant Aaron Eckhardt ready to call it a career in the USMC. But an alien invasion that is disguised somewhat as a meteor shower upsets those plans. The aliens that are invading are not warrior Klingons or logical Vulcans, in fact they're really ugly and use our own sea water as fuel for their weapons.

I'm not sure of the science with that one, but we've certainly got a ton of sea water on this old Earth. Why the aliens just didn't land somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between South America and New Zealand and take all they need is something I'm still trying to figure out. Instead they land in all kinds of coastal and the world forgets it's feuds and tries to battle back.

The film is very similar to War Of The Worlds as Eckhardt's isolated squad, sent on a rescue mission for some civilians who were left behind in an abandoned police station in Santa Monica get first hand experience up close and personal with the aliens. It's very much like scientists Gene Barry and Ann Robinson in the 1952 classic being left behind and learning about what makes the Martians tick. But these are not scientists, they're making it up as they go along.

Eckhardt is second in command to young second lieutenant Ramon Rodriguez and there's tension there as well.

The acting takes a distant second place to the computer generated special effects. Although the stress of these Marines in combat with a very unknown enemy is telling and portrayed well on the screen.

Battle: Los Angeles is a good, not great science fiction film and it will no doubt attract a cult following of sorts, the same way Starship Troopers has.