Battle: Los Angeles

This got a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I feel it fully deserves five stars from me. It's a tense war picture more than a scifi movie, capturing the experience of what it's like to be a Marine in constant, heavy combat. The characters are well-drawn and relatable. I am guessing they had a lot of actual Marine advisers, bringing plausible realism to the battle scenarios. To this civilian (and I may be completely wrong), it rings very true to what combat must be like --- you get a good peep at the professional standards and practices of soldiering.I'm frankly stunned so many critics hated it when far stupider action flicks (e.g., Thor) get rave reviews. Part of the criticism of the picture comes from "stupid dialog", but I honestly found the things people said not "stupid dialog" but an attempt to capture the way people really talk. I mean, if you're in a war situation where you're trying to comfort a little boy who has just lost his father, you are not going to be spouting Shakespeare, and you're inevitably not going to say all the right things you might say if you had time to reflect. That's the case with the dialog here.As someone who is ignorant of military life, I found the teamwork very interesting to watch, and it seemed plausible to me, like it was the way Marines in such a situation who were competent soldiers would really interact. Now, again, I say this as someone who has never been a Marine or even known a Marine, so I may be completely wrong, and, if I am, leave a comment telling me how this movie gets it wrong. I'd be interested.I liked the little detail of the "Retreat, Hell" chant, too. It was inspiring, but not too corny. It was sympathetic how they used the chant to buck up their courage and get focused back on task.The effects in the movie are more subtly done than a lot of CGI. It doesn't *look* like CGI in most scenes. There are not the annoyingly dark filters a lot of such movies place over the image to hide any defects in the computer work, so it has a kind of gritty realism.One criticism I have is of the shaky camera work. I understand that this is an attempt to add to the realism, but I find it a cheap trick. The choreography of the scene should communicate the chaos and desperation, not the cameraman!

This film is unusual in a variety of ways. It features some of the most intense combat scenes ever put on film. It is filled with utter chaos almost from beginning to end. But... it is also filled with compassion, loss and sorrow and man's inherent humanity for those who are helpless and defenseless. The special effects are truly praiseworthy. The acting is superb! This film is a must-see for those who appreciate top notch Sci-fi and stories of human compassion. It is much more than a science fiction film. So much more. The child actors are truly praiseworthy, as are all the rest. I was on the edge of my chair for much of the film, and this old dog is not easily moved. It is truly brilliant!

<Possible Spoilers>In the interest of full disclosure, my son is in the United States Marine Corps, so I may be just a bit biased. That being said, I feel this is, so far, the best blend of military & science fiction I've seen so far. If you discount the aliens you have an excellent war film. Each of the men in the squad has a back-story that makes them compelling and easy to relate to. there is also the war-weary Sgt. just days away from retirement, the 'boot' who is so young his parents had to give him permission to enlist, the new 2nd Lt. who's wife is pregnant with their first child, the young Marine who is in the middle of planning his soon-to-be-wedding when the invasion comes, and the frightened yet patriotic civilian accompanied by his son who wants to prove to the boy he is just as manly as the Marines. Now if you've watched any war movies you will recognize these characters. One or two show up in every war movie and it is just a matter of time before they buy it in a blaze of glory. But in this film you have all of them in the same squad! Tension runs high as you try to figure out who will live and who will die before the movie hits it's end. To add to this drama, you have the aliens. A bit unlike anything to come out of Hollywood before. They are outfitted with weapons and equipment that is decades beyond ours and have a physiology that makes them nearly impossible to kill with the common arsenal of the average grunt. This is a well written, well directed, well acted film that uses a bit of that "hand-held" style camera work to give it a very real feeling news report style. If you like war movies or science fiction movies, you will like this. It is edge of your seat action from the get-go and the Marines act like, well, Marines and will make you proud.

Very good action/sci-fi film. Aliens arrive on ships in the initial form of meteorites and their intent is to suck up all our water, killing us all along the way. That's where the military comes in. Thus begin very good battle scenes. The Marines have to go into the hot zone of Santa Monica to rescue civilians. Along for the ride is a battle green lieutenant (the leader of the troop), a battle seasoned staff sergeant (whom no one trusts and want along because his last mission went badly), and a typical but eclectic bunch of grunts. Some of the performances are quite good, including Aaron Eckhart as the staff sergeant, Noel Fisher as Lenihan, Will Rothhaar as Imlay, Gino Anthony Pesi as Stavrou and Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Adukwu.The movie's weakness is a couple of corny dialogue scenes. Its strength is the battle scenes and the comraderie amongst the soldiers. I have to say that after the freeway scene I felt a little battle-weary. The effects are excellent but they have their flaws. The space vessels look like an intricate mess, not unlike the ships in District 9. The aliens are slimy, icky and yucky. My assumption is that they are bred and reared solely as fighting machines. It appears that these E.T.'s have no culture or aims other than war and water consumption. The aliens are never shown full-on, close-up and clearly; I suppose to mask the special effects failings.Still the film is a wild ride and is worth getting.

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman Battle: Los Angles our storyline finds planet Earth being bombarded globally by meteor showers which turn out to be a cover for an alien invasion force that land off the coast of all major cities and one of the last to fall is Los Angles the squad of marines sent to retrieve civilians from a suburb is headed-up by soon to be retired Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz played by Aaron Eckhart who has previous played in big budget productions such as "The Dark Knight" and later in the tale renowned all round action girl Michelle Rodriguez known for appearances in movies such as "Avatar" and "The Fast and the Furious" franchise makes an appearance, this film does not have anything original in its running time of 116 minutes but what it is a very entertaining popcorn flick for a Saturday night with a good surround sound system and understanding neighbours Gun-ho!This 50 GB region free disc is encoded using MPEG-4 AVC codec in full 1080p resolution and in 2.40.1 aspect ratio it also comes in living room shaking English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 the audio track delivers the sound of the battlefield with all its bass heavy explosions and the gunfire from machine-guns and other heavy ordinance along with the military vehicles to the energy weapons of the aliens and their dying gurgles with great effect.The package comes with a good selection of subtitles which are as follows:- English, English for the hard of hearing, Greek, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified) Mandarin Traditional, Thai.The Special Features are as follows: - Behind the Battle, Aliens, Preparing for Battle, Creating L.A.The Blu-ray comes with exclusives which are as follows directing the Battle, Command control Command your experience by watching picture-in-Picture and more during the movie, Boot Camp, The Free-way Battle.

A movie with a good deal of action and excitement, but I found the jerky, hand held camera technique very difficult to work with. It is so distracting and frustrating, especially when the other elements of the film are so admirable. As an action movie, no problem! As a viewing experience, very disappointing.

It makes me laugh some of these reviewers and critics that go around giving 1 star reviews and picking holes in everything . This is a very good film , no boring build up, no romantic side story just straight into the action. As a previous reviewer said it's Independence Day vs Saving Pribate Ryan. It's not the best film in the world but it definitely is a good watch. The DVD itself came very quickly brand new as if store bought

This movie looks much more as a sequel to "Blackhawk down" than another "War of the worlds", but this is exactly what I liked in it. When the invasion of Earth begins, the US Marines do not ask many questions about the motivations of invaders or the sense of life in general - they just grab their weapons and start shooting back. And they give a great show!This is an excellent war movie, picturing modern urban warfare in a series of fights which look much more like battles of Khorramshahr 1980, Beirut 1989, Monrovia 1990, Vukovar 1991, Sarajevo 1992-1994, Mogadishu 1993, 1st Grozny 1994-95, Jaffna 1995, 2nd Grozny 1999-2000 or Fallujah 2004 than the "classical" movie fights against alien invaders.There is a relatively short introduction, in which we get to know soldiers from the Marines platoon we will follow, but after that it is the non stop battle. Action is made of numerous marches and engagements, interrupted just for short stops to regroup, catch breath, drink some water, tend to the wounded and find more ammo. Fighting is very well filmed and looks quite a lot like in "Blackhawk down". The gunfights are quite realistic and the Marines are far from super heroes - they use quite a lot of munitions to kill every enemy trooper, they make mistakes, they sometimes fall when running, they get lost in the labyrinth of ruined city, their only machine gun jams in the cloud of thick dust, etc. The butcher bill is heavy and many characters will not make it to the final credits.Contrary to many other alien invasion movies, in this one the invaders seem to be absolutely desperate and their attack seems to have been hastily prepared and even largely improvised. Frankly, I believe it was a good idea, as it makes the whole plot credible - otherwise, if they have the secret of interstellar flight, why couldn't they just wipe us safely from the orbit (or at least destroy all our significant defence installations)? But clearly they are in an incredible hurry and they had to do fast and with what they just had at hand right now, rather than carefully plot the invasion. Also, alien invaders, their engines and their weapons look really alien - there is almost no similarity with anything earthly.As for their motivation, at one moment we are told that they are after Earth's water, but that is clearly ludicrous as once you got the interstellar travel technology there is enough water in the space in places where there is absolutely no opposition. Aliens seem however able to use water in ways we still did not discover and as they can bring only a limited quantity of supplies with them, they depend heavily on local water to fuel the invasion. May be it will be better explained in the sequel, if there is one.This is in large part a one man show, as the central character of Staff Sergeant Nantz gradually takes over the action. This is I believe the greatest role Aaron Eckhart played until now and he is very credible in it. It certainly took a great effort on his part - if you saw him in "Thank you for smoking", you will simply not believe that it is the same actor! Michelle Rodriguez, who appears in the middle of the movie, plays the only woman soldier we see in the battle - her character, Sergeant Elena Santos, is an electronic intelligence technician who was separated from her unit and joined the first friendly group she could find. Other actors are also doing well, but their characters mostly follow the leader.Being very fond of war and SF movies, I must say that I was delighted by "Battle Los Angeles" and I do intend to buy the DVD when it is available. And I certainly hope for a sequel - in fact I would be very pleased if it could become a franchise showing the whole history of this war, until the day we chase this space scum to their home planet and dictate them conditions for surrender!

really enjoyable film in my opinion. Good action and CGI with good sound FX etc.The story is typical action movie. CERTAIN DEATH - stuff happens, things explode - HUMANS WIN etc etc