Battle: Los Angeles

No, this is not Skyline 2; I had to get that out of the way. It's easy to draw the comparison, I'll grant you that. An unknown alien threat descends on the west coast (and the rest of the world) and starts messing us up immediately. In Skyline, they abuct people and steal their brains, while in Battle, they just rips us apart with projectiles and explosives. Independence Day is also a film that is quickly drawn into the mix of comparisons, and when you throw that one into the mix, you realize how the alien invasion pic has evolved and changed over the years. You could go back even further to something like The Day the Earth Stood Still and become incredibly scared: the brainy sci-fi invasion movie has turned into an action-driven vehicle of brainless special effects and action (yes, so much so it had to be said twice).

I really felt like I was watching a video game here. It doesn't help that games have come such a way graphically now, that their aliens are complex and full of character, just as much so as the movies'. You could create a Battle game with the exact same story and scenes, and get a decent little eight hour shooter out of it. The movie starts off wit the aliens coming down, and we are cheaply introduced to a variety of characters that will become the team of Marines we follow throughout the rest. I say cheaply because it's formula and annoying: stereotypes are introduced, a very brief backstory is provided for each person, and then we never see the relevancy later on. One guy is currently out of combat due to some stress and anxiety from a previous combat situation. He's full on in combat later on though, and this anxiety is never touched upon again. It just further constitutes the fact that you are here to watch these guys kick all kinds of ass, and nothing more.

To the point of intriguing action, this movie excels and is fantastic to watch. It focuses on this small team as they try to rescue and escort civilians back to the safe zone. It's fight after fight, understandably, and a climax of pure action that does not disappoint. I swear at times I was manipulating the controller in my hands at time. It was also kind of interesting as American streets are turned into war zones and points of skirmish. There was an abundance of broken up concrete and burning cars to make me believe I was watching Black Hawk Down for a while, and the heavy layering of pro-Marines was enough to make me wince once in a while. Perhaps, being Canadian I'm skewed a bit and have distanced myself from the ooo-rahs and retreat: HELLs that it practically became funny every time it came up. That being said, I have a great deal of respect for anybody who is putting themselves in harm way, and you can see the teamwork at play here and, unlike Skyline's group of sad sacks, believe in some degree of success for these Marines and the human race. Not Independence Day-like success, granted, but something.

I have to make one more gripe: the intro. Both Battle and Skyline started "in the action" so to speak, then reversed the clock by twenty four hours. There is no point to this than to aggravate me: they don't reverse and spend significant time developing characters or setting plot that we don't already know. It's a waste of screen time. Now that being said, those periods are short and we get right into the action, and that's what this movie is all about. It's a popcorn flick with awesome action and fantastic special effects.