Movie Review: "Battle: Los Angeles"

This was opening weekend for "Battle: Los Angeles". And believe it or not, I actually made it out to finally see a movie on it's opening weekend.  I'm sure if you're reading this you have probably already seen the trailers and commercials for this flick.  I'll be the first to admit that the commercials and trailers are pretty cryptic about what L.A. is fighting against.  However, I'll do this a little backwards.  Was the movie fun?  Yes.  Would I recommend this movie to someone else?  Absolutely.

First off, I'll have to admit; the only other movie I have seen where Aaron Eckhart has a role wa "The Dark Knight" (he played Harvey Dent/Two-Face).  He played a decent part, but left the role somewhat lacking.  However, in his role as SSgt. Michael Nantz in this film takes the cake.  I felt that he pulled off a very strong role, and completely nailed it.  With other actors lending their talents: Ramon Rodriguez, Ne-Yo, Michael Pena, and Michelle Rodriguez to name a few; the movie was nothing short of strong acting.

*****Possible  Spoilers Below*****

One the best highlights of this film for me was the fact that the vast majority of the cast weren't big name, main stream actors.  This film was perfect for a host of secondary characters lending their support to the main conflict of the movie and to how Eckhart's character was dealing with the situations at hand.  For the first time in a long time I left the theater feeling satisfied with what I had just seen.

As far as the story goes, it isn't exactly original.  But it's more of a hodge-podge of many different plots.  The aliens appearance were somewhere between 'District 9' and 'Transformers'.  And contrary to the title, the entire world was under attack.  Not just L.A.  However, the entire story takes place in L.A.  So plot confusion is forgiven.  In my opinion a little more work could have been done on the design of the aliens themselves.  I thought the drones and some of their weapons looked a little cooler than the aliens did.  But, I can also forgive that.

We haven't exactly been running short of alien invasion films over the last several years.  But this one has to be the best.  I felt that it delivered on what I had hoped we would get with 'District 9'.  This movie contained everything a good science fiction film should: the emotion, the enemy, the struggle to overcome.  The viewer definitely gets thrown into the middle of an alien invasion.  And let's be up front some of the marketing for this film was pretty creative.  Anyone remember the leaked 'UFO Lights' from Jerusalem a month or so ago?  Yep, it was for this film that video was made.  Pretty cool.

Anyways, enough rambling.  This film is great, go see it.
I'd give it 4 spaceships out of 5.