Battle Los Angeles

How many of you either, (A) Thought this looked cool, but knew it would suck? or (B) Watched Skyline, so wrote this off without a second thought? Me too - on the first point. Only watched 20 minutes of Skyline, so I cannot attest to that, but I have heard things. It only took 20 minutes to be completely enthralled in this story of mystery. First off, alien invasion films are a dime a dozen, whether that dime is a decent film or not is another question. This film does something new that I don't recall seeing in this genre of film before. I will come back to that. Staff Sergeant Mike Nance (Eckhart) has just submitted his retirement papers, they are signed and within a week his 20 year career as a marine will be over. Then the meteors begin to crash and the military are necessarily on the west coast. Though Nance is done he isn't quite done. He has to aid and abed a new officer named Martinez. Lt Martinez is fresh out of the classroom and can't be more than 25. He is now Nance's superior for his last mission. Take a squad though the city and get some stranded civilians at the local Police dept. They still don't know what they are dealing with. When they finally realize Aliens have landed on Earth and it is war, it gets real crazy. Lt. Martinez is a green horn when it comes to combat, but Nance is patient and mentors him the best he can.  Here is the great part. Aliens have "landed" on earth many times in film, but they always control the skies. This one is a straight forward hand to hand battlefield type of situation between us and them. They use tactics much like we do. The flank, surround, and destroy. Our military are quickly realizing this is a difficult opponent to defeat. They do reach the civilians and now their objective is to get them to safety. This movie does a brilliant job of combining combat, America under attack, War speeches, and Valour. I am flabbergasted at how poorly this film was reviewed. I love it. Every single aspect of it is so awesomely done, and I will watch it again. Great writing, better directing, and some surprise actors I didn't know were in it. Bridget Moynahan, Michael Pena, and Michelle Rodriguez all add to the dynamic. As if the story wasn't good enough, add in Nance's own personal demons of war, and have them hashed out in a very public manner just solidified the writing. A very good war movie that is like a mix between ID4 and Black Hawk Down.

NBM rates Battle Los Angeles - Phenomenal