amberfocus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amberfocus) wrote2011-06-18 03:50 pm
amberfocus) wrote2011-06-18 03:50 pm
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Battle Los Angeles
So, Zombie Friday went pretty well, actually. As I mentioned I wasn't actually watching a zombie movie this week, but an apocolyptic type thing. So...Battle Los Angeles takes place in the near future and in many ways it was a lot like Skyline, although I think Skyline had a ton more CGI and Battle Los Angeles was more into creature effects, though of course, it did have to have some CGI what with all the alien space ships attacking and all. It was actually a little bit slow at first. It took me about 30 minutes to get into the plot...or maybe it took them 30 minutes to have a plot, which seems more likely. But then it went like gangbusters so I'm glad I held on.
This was definitely more of a war movie that just happened to be with an invading alien force, than an alien movie. It felt real and gritty and almost semi-documentary because a lot of it was filmed with handheld cameras, but I really liked that. Where Skyline was about the civilians trying to make it to safety, Battle Los Angeles followed one battalion of marines from the day before the aliens descended in a rain of meteors to what was a somewhat hopeful for mankind ending. Every coastline in the world had been invaded and at first it appeared that there were only foot soldiers and no air support, but several hours into the fighting the alien air support showed up. It was rather a freaky moment. I admit I jumped.
Although this was a major testosterone shoot em up, blow em up sort of movie, it was remarkably character driven. And Aaron Eckhart was hot. One of those strong jawed, cleft-chinned, well built types with kind eyes. It also hadAna-Lucia from Lost Michelle Rodirguez as one of the two adult females in the movie. I've never really liked her as an actress because I hated Ann-Lucia as a character, but she was very good in this and I think I may have gotten over that. The goal of the battalion was to get to a police station that had civilians holed up and get them back off the coast because a major air strike has been called. The military is prepared to destroy the coast to wipe out the aliens it has gotten so bad. So they manage to get to the civilians (one man, one woman, three children) with some loss of life and get them out of there and from that point on it's basically about getting to an airbase any way they can.
One thing that I really, really liked is that the aliens were using our water against us. They used the water to power their ships and the technology that was grafted onto their bodies. That's why they attacked on coast lines and the ocean levels were taking noticable drops from all that was consumed. It was a unique twist I've not seen in other alien war type movies.
They figure out that the drone space ships are being controlled by a master control ship and if they can take it out, the aliens will lose all air support. Again with loss of life and much blowing up and shooting up of things (and loss of life) they manage to succeed in taking it out and giving other countries hope that the aliens can be defeated. It ends on that rather hopeful note with the batallion heading back to the front to wipe up the ground troops.
All in all, very good, although I honestly do not think even military men would use the S word as much as it was used in this movie. I swear the first half hour had it used at least 300 times. I am totally not kidding Swearing totally loses it's effect when it is used so constantly. Eventually that settled down so the one time that the F word was used it was actually shocking and effective, and used appropriately for the situation.
This was definitely more of a war movie that just happened to be with an invading alien force, than an alien movie. It felt real and gritty and almost semi-documentary because a lot of it was filmed with handheld cameras, but I really liked that. Where Skyline was about the civilians trying to make it to safety, Battle Los Angeles followed one battalion of marines from the day before the aliens descended in a rain of meteors to what was a somewhat hopeful for mankind ending. Every coastline in the world had been invaded and at first it appeared that there were only foot soldiers and no air support, but several hours into the fighting the alien air support showed up. It was rather a freaky moment. I admit I jumped.
Although this was a major testosterone shoot em up, blow em up sort of movie, it was remarkably character driven. And Aaron Eckhart was hot. One of those strong jawed, cleft-chinned, well built types with kind eyes. It also had
One thing that I really, really liked is that the aliens were using our water against us. They used the water to power their ships and the technology that was grafted onto their bodies. That's why they attacked on coast lines and the ocean levels were taking noticable drops from all that was consumed. It was a unique twist I've not seen in other alien war type movies.
They figure out that the drone space ships are being controlled by a master control ship and if they can take it out, the aliens will lose all air support. Again with loss of life and much blowing up and shooting up of things (and loss of life) they manage to succeed in taking it out and giving other countries hope that the aliens can be defeated. It ends on that rather hopeful note with the batallion heading back to the front to wipe up the ground troops.
All in all, very good, although I honestly do not think even military men would use the S word as much as it was used in this movie. I swear the first half hour had it used at least 300 times. I am totally not kidding Swearing totally loses it's effect when it is used so constantly. Eventually that settled down so the one time that the F word was used it was actually shocking and effective, and used appropriately for the situation.
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I really like Aaron Eckhart - I have for years - he's such a versatile actor and he was great in this - totally carried the film.
As far as action movies go, this was pretty good. I'm glad I saw it. (I'm more a Romantic Comedy gal usually)