Dragon of China

(2012-04-28 02:08:49)

a movie worth an A rating

I honestly do not know which planet did all the critics live. They may lived in a f..king sh..t hole planet called Oscar and their lives are solely to distinguish themselves from the everyday Joes. No wonder no one cares about Oscar nowadays, because we are just normal people.

junkyarddog911

(2012-04-27 10:25:40)

I have my Firearms, point me to the aliens :-)

Movie was good, although in the end I felt like something was lacking.You might think they could spawn several episodes off this one movie.With the main theme being Battle LA, the fact the movie shows just onesmall group and their encounters on their mission, kept me thinkingduring the movie, "but whats going on over there, and over there?" . Ieven found myself saying during the movie, that they should have thegang bangers with their guns attacking the aliens also. lol And to seeLA on fire and smashed was pretty cool. All in all, it was close towhat I expected, and I am glad I was able to contribute to my localtheater here in San Clemente, Ca. T.C.

Joe Neumaier

(2012-04-22 22:28:32)

When the mothership finally arrives, it's a clinking, clanking, clattering collection of metallic parts, as if Fred Sanford's junkyard suddenly became airborne.

Yaroslav Zaitsev

(2012-04-22 18:44:23)

So much promise and so little to show for it.

Battle Los Angeles is one of those movies that makes you all excitedafter seeing commercials but does not quite deliver. Most of peoplehere have hit the nail on the head. This movie has every feel of that honor roll student who earns nothingbut A's and just so happens to be your kid. Knowing that your child candeliver you give him or her money to go to home depot and buy highquality expensive paint and paint brushes and paint rollers and paintsupplies. You then ask that child to paint your house while you are onvacation. On the phone your kid tells you that he or she is finishedand while kiddo gave their best try it looks iffy. There is paint onthe ceiling even though masking tape was applied. There is paint on thefloor even though plastic lining was used. There are droplets ofoverspray on carpet and kitchen appliances but it was done by an honorroll student earning straight A's who gave their best try using bestmaterials possible and it still look bad. And if you are wondering how this all applies to this movie at handlets look at the facts. Up and coming movie guy pitches an idea toproducers and not just an idea but a holly grail of ideas. He producesmovie shorts, computer animations, story boards... the whole shibang.His story line is not really that fresh but he made it real. He made itbelievable. Outcome was not up to par to his own vision, however. For starters camera work is by far one of the worst "shake cam"masterprices I have ever seen. Even in the "how it was made" discfeaturettes they had a shake cam guy video tape and another guy shakehis cam in another axis. The final result was a twirly twirl make youdizzy in a heartbeat kind of experience. Another aspect of this movie is that vision was lost half way throughthe movie. I do not believe that it was movie's intent to make alienrace look like complete panzies and drop like flies. It is not so muchthe fact that aliens were weak as it is about how strong human kind arein comparison to a race of creatures capable of traveling across vastdistances in space and landing and have technological superiority withall kinds of drones, bases, ground units etc. If you look at a movielike "War of the Worlds" aliens die off by themselves with little helpfrom humans. That is what I was expecting from Battle Los Angeles andinstead I got the usual:Aliens attack then some out of shape almost at a point of retirementsoldier brings down entire enemy force with 1 puny rocket. You wouldexpect that aliens would barely be scratched with a surface to airmissle but noooo... a thing that is the size of manhattan drops like afly and then all the drones die and then aliens run back to mommy. Sigh what a disappointment. Outside of this major plot hole camera work just about puts a nail inthe coffin.

elaine-bannon

(2012-04-19 10:19:27)

Edge of your seat action right to the end.

I went to see this movie with no idea of the story, no expectations andwas thoroughly entertained for all 116 minutes.Without spoiling any of the story they have taken the key ingredientsfor a Sci-fi and mashed them together with the high adrenaline humantragedy that goes with war. It is a story about survival of thefittest, humanity and teeth gritting determination. From reading other reviews I am told if you like Cloverfield, District9, Independence day and Blackhawk down you'll like this. Personally Ihated Cloverfield and District 9 but I loved this even though there issome shaky-cam scenes. It might not be for everyone but if you likeSci-fi/ Independence day and Blackhawk down/ war movies in generalyou'll enjoy this.

KineticSeoul

(2012-04-18 18:23:30)

My most hyped and than disappointed movie for this years spring break

This is the movie that I was hyped for the most for spring break,unfortunately it didn't come close to meeting my expectation. In fact Istarted fall asleep literally after a couple of minutes into the movieonly to wake up because of the loud explosions. The movie lacked depthand development, the aliens in this is poorly designed and doesn't putenough emphasis on them. In fact this movie could have been about WorldWar 3 and it wouldn't have made that much of a difference, becausethere is hardly enough depth and emphasis on the aliens. In fact thismovie just constantly tries to show how heroic and brave the marinesare and how badass it is to be a marine. I give the people that madethe trailer props because they really knew how to sell this movie tothe audience, because the trailer made it seem like this was going tobe a tense alien invasion movie with good amount of action and wellcrafted script. The only good thing was that it had a lot of action init, but even the action scenes got a bit annoying because it's all overthe place and sometimes you don't know what is going on. They probablydid this to build tension but it just doesn't work. What irritated methe most is the constant shaky camera, it really was very nauseatingand it started to give me a headache after a while. There is hardly anyemotion or attachment to the characters and because the lack of thoseelements it constantly has some sort of emotional and inspiring musicconstantly playing in the background. Watching this was like watching acool video game, but the thing is it would have worked way better as avideo game instead because although some action sequences was kindacool at times. When it came to watching it, it just came out a bit dulland almost everything about this movie is very one dimensional. Thedialogue in this movie was super lame and even crappy at times. If thismovie was a video game it would have actually been sweet, in fact thewhole movie felt like the creators of this movie just played a wholebunch of video games with alien invasion and decided to make a movie ofit by combining some aspects of those games. Now I am a gamer, but thisvideo game style movie as a movie was pretty disappointing and nothingreally stood out for me besides few cool action sequences. All in allthis is basically a cheesy popcorn flick.6.8/10

(2012-04-17 22:35:13)

California Screamin'

Battle: LA is about what you would expect from a big action spectacle that wasn't quite good enough (at least to the money hungry studios) to make the summer movie season cut. In some ways it's even better than a handful of the supposed blockbusters of the last couple of years. From basically the start of the film we are thrown right into the action. Aliens have come to Earth and want our water. Wow, how original. There isn't much time for character development here, but Aaron Eckhart does the best with the limited material. Michelle Rodriguez is underused and given nothing more than a few cheesy lines.The CGI is far from jaw dropping, but it doesn't look too fake and the less is more approach serves it well. The aliens themselves are a little on the boring side, mainly because their weaponary and fighting styles are almost identical to our own. The shaky cam is once again overused. It would have worked in moderation in order to put the viewer inside the action, but it became increasingly annoying. The dialogue is eye rolling inducing in spots and the emotional parts were on the typical and sometimes corny side, but overall Battle: LA is worth checking out for it's realistic approach. I saw the terrible Skyline in late 2010, and it is even a more laughably bad Sci-Fi invasion movie when compared to this one. The Syfy channel also released their ultra so bad it's hilarious version, Battle: Los Angelos (can your title be any more similar?) this weekend. At least the latter of the two is intentionally horrid.

(2012-04-17 12:46:29)

Just ok?

A Independence Day remake? I wouldnt buy or rent this movie again but may watch it if it is on tv.And whats with the darting around of the camera? Ever notice how all alien attacks occure in California (in movies)LOL? Im never going to Cali. lol

(2012-04-17 09:23:50)

Finally, A Positive Film About U.S. Soldiers!

This review is from: Battle: Los Angeles (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Blu-ray) We went to see this film with a good dose of skeptisism considering the moronic garbage coming out of Hollywood about our military. We were so very pleasantly surprised. Not only is this film very well, done and exciting - edge of your seat stuff, but it shows our military in a good light. We loved the cinematography, the acting and the action. One of the best science fiction films to come along in a while. Very clever imagination as far as the aliens too. I hope we get more stuff out of Hollywood in the future of this caliber.

Matt Neal

(2012-04-16 22:27:30)

Don't expect too much more than a gritty tour of duty against ET's angry cousins and you'll be totally satisfied.

alavallee13

(2012-04-15 09:40:09)

Too Much Combat & Too Little Story

After all the hype and excitement built up over this film, I can't helpbut say that I was a bit disappointed. Battle L.A. is an alien invasionfilm set in Los Angeles that follows a regiment of marines as theybattle their way out of the stricken, alien infested city of LosAngeles. Aaron Eckhart, who plays Sgt. Michael Nantz, does a superb joband really draws you into the movie. His character is very believable,and in some scenes can really pull on your heart-strings.Unfortunately, many of the other actors, save for Bryce Cass, MichealPina, and Michelle Rodrigez, come across as very dry, and unbelievable.Despite these obvious drawbacks, the film still packs a punch. Thevisual effects are an impressive feat, and the portrayal of thesemarines is dead on accurate. While most of the film is combat, thereare still some scenes that are incredibly moving, and are sure to bringa tear to the eye. The opening scenes of the alien assault, combinedwith the fantastic score written by composer Brian Tyler, make for astunning performance.Having stated this, the movie does seem to drag on a bit. While thecombat scenes were very well done, it seemed like they were fightingall the time. By the time the ending comes around, the audience is leftwith too little story, and too much combat.So if you're looking for a decent, alien invasion movie, Battle L.A. isworth your time. But if you're looking both for good action and a goodstory, you might want to wait for it to come out on either DVD orOnDemand.

theillegaldanish

(2012-04-15 06:13:21)

Great fast paced action

I have read a lot of reviews that seem to just want to critique the badpoints of this film. Yes it is true that you don't have much characterdevelopment, yes the plot is of a pretty simple formula, the scriptisn't the best and you don't learn much about the invadingaliens....but why would vast details be available in this situation!This film is what it is, a great fast paced action film through theeyes of the marines in the thick of it. You don't really care that muchabout the films draw backs because of this. The acting is good, AaronEckhart does hold it all together with his performance and the actionwill keep you interested. The only bad thing i would say is that theintensity and the struggle does wear down for a short period.I would say if you want a good action film and your the kind of personthat can overlook its drawbacks then i would highly recommend it.

oktayvolkanalkaya

(2012-04-11 18:46:48)

Action Was The Key

The movie is offering you a real war action. No stupid things, noromance, no bullshit... Only solid action. Thats why i really likedthat movie. The best thing in the movie is we never saw any god damncountry leader. The movie reserves its name: "Battle" If you want tolive action, watch it. If you are looking for a USA president who issaving the world, watch Independence Day and kiss Will Smith's ass. Ormaybe you would like to see a popular idiot, so you can watch War ofThe Worlds and save Tom's pretty girl from the aliens. Or maybe youwould like to kill yourself, so watch the Skyline and feel the pain inyour brain. So as a result this movie is the best alien invasion moviei've ever seen. The other examples of this kind of movies are includesbullshit. If you want to feel action and feel the energy, go for it.

bingolocoadiosmio

(2012-04-11 07:31:36)

do not rent this movie

purely heinous movie. heinous even. heiniousness and heiniosity. thismovie is pure suck. from the 1st second. the dialog between pilot andmission ops is ridiculous and implausible. mission ops is telling thepilot that the target is at a certain location. the location of"bearing 290". that's not a location it is a DIREECTION. even after thepilot makes course correction the target is STILL AT "bearing 290". theclips of the cockpit interior show the pilot in a fixed andstationary/static position inside the aircraft DURING HIGH SPEEDMANEUVERING. the pilot's flight gear looks like it was bought fromebay. there are also items missing from the cockpit. the alienspacecraft are superimposed into the video with what i can only assumeis windows movie maker. the dialog is straight out of teamAmerica-world police only it isn't supposed to be funny. the clips ofair force jets waiting to take off are digitally rendered by what lookslike an amiga 500 and a 1st gen (1991) video toaster. there's some oldfat guy in an outdated flak jacket barking orders from a circa 1970'sperimeter defense tower at "some guy" who is about to go "do battle"with the aliens. when the cylon raiders hit the airfield the digitalexplosions and pans of flaming gas are not even close to laughable.when the humans arm themselves they gear up from a central issue pointinstead of getting their personal gear from where they would normallystore it. when they shoot their rifles all the muzzle flash isdigitally rendered and there are no shell casings ejected. digitalbullets? i seriously doubt that there was a real weapon within a mileof the set (which looks mostly like a really big green screen). HOLYMONKEYS BATMAN!!! at 16 minutes the humans are still firing on their1st mags (they never reload cause the bullets are digital!) and a ww2corsair lands at the ole air base! EVERYTHING IS DIGITAL IN THIS MOVIEexcept for MOST of the humans. and it is digital done poorly. in 1977george lucas would have said "this movie sucks, i can do WAY betterthan this. for less". they spent 100 million on this? i think they'retrying to use this movie to show a loss for tax purposes. if i was oneof the marines that consulted on this i would not want my nameassociated with it. the movie trailer tricked me. the trailer "looked"awesome but it delivered pure disappointment during every singlesecond. i would like to spend more time her picking it apart but itjust isn't worth it. i might need counseling to get rid of thedepression that this movie is capable of inflicting on anyone who maywatch it. i'd rather use a cordless drill to drive sheet rock screwsthrough my scrotum than watch any more of this movie.

spartancurtis

(2012-04-10 19:22:46)

Entertaining and some what of a plot

Well after i saw this with my friend and his step dad. I was let,s justsay shellshocked it was extermly loud in the theater and everyexplosian and gunshots were made me feel i was in the fight and killingthose alien bastards. But people i do agree that some acting was prettybad and poor and parts do fall flat along with some parts. For exampleits only seen through the eyes of military and not civilains. Yeafinally it did deliver what i wanted wherethe army don,t get thereasses handed to them but to much fighting and to obvious of a plot. Butit is better than some of the alien war human movies i seen. So irecommend to people who are popcorn lovers or people who are darn sickoff humans getting slaughterd in every movie

satarica

(2012-04-10 10:37:28)

if this movie makes u wish to join marines ur IQ is too low for requirements so don't waste ur time

I have never seen so much money spent on such a stupid unbelievablestory. Cmn race capable of reaching us from another galaxy in thisnumbers cant be that stupid to send live soldiers in fight and even ifthis is just their predator fetish thing they would be much more harderto kill. If there will be alien attack no M16 will harm any alienduring this "war" or any other weapon we have if they can reach us theycan destroy us in seconds. And reason why they came is another lolthing....water,universe is full of water but they want to drain ouroceans for this precious element. If u spend millions on movie u shouldat least use lil bit of logic,but no thsi movie is just brainlessaction movie drowning in patriotism and bad acting. There is just onequality in this movie and this is special effects. This was completewaste of my time.After watching this garbage my IQ is at least 10%lower then before.

(2012-04-09 14:11:44)

Mindless Action

Most Sci-Fi epics require suspension of disbelief. That's a given. But please! Aliens cross interstellar space in mighty ships to annihilate earth's occupants and suck up earth's water. A Marine platoon faces off against them in L.A. After a seemingly endless series of tedious battles between a few gung-ho soldiers and the aliens, the aliens lose? They're on the run? Get real. Marines are tough, but my advice to them under the circumstances: Bend over, grab your ankles and kiss your a** goodbye. Silly story, decent special effects. If all you're looking for is mindless action, then this is the movie for you.

rofynn3

(2012-04-09 04:26:22)

Its what you expect from a Big Budget alien flick.

I really enjoyed this film and you could to provided you go in itknowing what to expect.Its a Big budget Alien flick, so Action is going to be there, Lots ofexplosions, lots of characters (Living to die later) and some cheesytacked on story. its what we've seen in Skyline, District 9 andindependence day hell even clover field. I went in knowing this was aCGi flick that would have a flimsy story and Tons of action, and i wasnot disappointed. Anyways back to the movie.*********PLOT info (just the start!) ************ So it starts out witha Bang the marines are in a Chinook on their way to fight for L.A. themovie then cuts to 24hours hours before to introduce you to the cast.You have your token military characters here. A rookie lieutenant,another commanding officer with a bad military past (lost some men inthe middle east and the marines. One about to get married, one who'sbrother was killed (in the command of the previously mentionedCommanding officer) and others (seriously who cares!) Anyways, plotgoes that all of a sudden meteorites appear to be on their merry way toour beloved planet. Every shrugs them off as insignificant until theychange their trajectory. Now they start on course to crash near theshorelines of major Cities. The military is mobilized, evacuationorders are issued and something strange happens,As they enter theatmosphere they start slowing down then land in the oceans. They thenproceed to start attacking civilians who stayed to watch the (perceivedharmless) fireworks... The shot then resumes from where it left off asmarines go in to evacuate the remaining civilians before an air-strikeorder is carried out, One that the military hope will wipe of theenemy. I will stop with the plot here but it does take some interestingturns (but you will see them coming)*************I thought the story was pretty nice, it held the movie together nicelybringing sense to all the mayhem ( i kinda likened it to District 9: 2- revenge of the aliens! lol. because the aliens do share somesimilarity to the ones we saw in D9) The camera work i thought as anice effect but this is subjective, if you disliked Clover-field, youwill not like this! and vice versa. It kept me at full attentionfollowing the action closely.So yeah, my first Movie review on this site and probably my last, Ijust think its unfair that people go in expecting some Deep and complexstory from what was portrayed as a CGi flick. there is little characterprogression because there are a lot of characters! its not a lovemovies with 3 or 4 people, this is invasion from the perspective ofsome grunt trying to survive, What do they care whether you wentfishing with your dad when you were 10 lol Anyways, if you likedtransformers (CGi effects) , district 9 (the aliens), 2012 (thedestruction aspect) and clover-field (the camera work) then enjoy!

MHMovieReviews

(2012-04-09 01:18:09)

Aliens: Glorified Platoon Drama

At first glance "Battle: Los Angeles" looks like a "District 9" sequel,but it is actually just a really bad "War of the Worlds" in every wayshape and form. The film takes a group of forgotten, washed up, B listactors who have completely fallen off the grid and throws them behindAaron Eckhart ("The Dark Knight", "Rabbit Hole"). This cast includesMichelle Rodriguez ("Lost", "Avatar"), Michael PeГѓВ±a ("Observe andReport", "Crash"), Bridget Moynahan ("Blue Bloods", "I, Robot") andNe-Yo ("Princess and the Frog", Singer) among others. Eckhart'scharacter Staff Sargent Michael Nantz has a bad reputation after losingsoldiers from his previous squad. This sets into motion a clichГѓВ©redemption plot as SSgt. Nantz is thrown into another role of powerover a new platoon. The science fiction part of the film takes hold asDirector Jonathan Liebesman's ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: TheBeginning") interpretation of a falsely identified air raid in WorldWar II is manipulated into an apocalyptic alien attack on earth.However, the film only focuses on the resistance of SSgt. Nantz'splatoon in Los Angeles after meteor-like objects fall from the sky ontoLos Angeles's coast on August 11, 2011. Their mission is to savecivilians within the area before an all out bombing of Los Angeles andthe surrounding region occurs to prevent an alien apocalypse. The filmbecomes nothing more than a war film with aliens as SSgt. Nantzsearches out the weakness of the alien race.The obvious draw for this film comes from special effects and anapocalyptic alien plot. Without these the only thing that the film hasgoing for it is Aaron Eckhart's attempt to salvage his role along withas much wreckage around him as possible. There are a lot of very largeexplosions and fighting sequences between soldiers and aliens creatingample action in the film. However, Eckhart's character SSgt. Nantz isthe only multidimensional character in the film and the only characterthat the viewer cares about. Also, a couple of one liners make up theonly redeeming feature of the script."Battle: Los Angeles" is just another sad attempt at a science fictionapocalyptic movie about aliens trying to destroy the world. Is it asbad as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" remake? No, but it is almost inthe same league of failed cinema. The script is very poorly writtencontaining unnecessary sporadic character developments including theconnection between a veterinarian and an alien. Every character exceptSSgt. Nantz is one-dimensional making them nothing more than a hollowshell for the aliens to shoot at. Even so, the weakest part of themovie is the unneeded drama that the characters go through. The vieweris not able to connect to the peril of the characters because of theiroverdramatized performances added in between the action sequences inorder to fill up space."Battle: Los Angeles" is a film about an alien attack that is actuallymore about glorifying the drama within a platoon than actually savingthe world. Therefore, people should wait for John Favrou's "Cowboys andAliens" to release later on this year to get their alien action flickfill. "Battle: Los Angeles" should of stayed in Los Angeles on aHollywood set where it belongs.

groundhogdan09

(2012-04-08 12:55:44)

Clueless alien invaders

HOW MUCH!!!! I read somewhere that this movie cost 100 million dollarsto make! Really!? And if so why give it to this particular director whoreally has no clue. I really hope the catering was good because I failto see where that kind of money was spent.OK so a review. Trust me when I say this movie is awful, really, reallyawful. It has a paper thin plot, no script, poor acting, whether thatwas due to lack of commitment on behalf of the actors or they are justnot good at their chosen profession I couldn't say but I have seen acouple of them make some reasonably good movies in the past. However Ihave learned over the years that if you are going to watch a CGIblockbuster then you have to assume that the above (plot,script andacting) is usually found wanting, although you expect the camera workand editing to be of a higher quality than this. So I will move mycritique of this movie into another direction.My fundamental problem with this movie is the fact that it is soridiculously unbelievable. Let's assume that alien invasions cantheoretically take place, this is not the problem with whether thisyarn is believable or not. The point is that these aggressive alieninvaders come to conquer earth for whatever reason with absolutely notactical understanding of what is needed to successfully defeat anentire planet.It literally looks like they came up with the idea of invading earth ona whim as they were passing through our neighbourhood. They haveminimal air cover, not the total air superiority you would expect fromaggressive alien invaders. They send what looks like a token number ofground troops who are poorly equipped; they literally only just edge usin technical superiority. If said alien invaders had the means to gethere you would surely expect them to come armed to the teeth. They seemto lack commitment to complete destruction of earth's human population;it is almost like they actually want to give us a fighting chance.One final note. I have to be honest I haven't seen the last 20-30minutes because I started to show the same lack of commitment as theinvaders did, so if the last 30 minutes of this movie somehow managesto redeem itself then ignore this review, however I have a sneakysuspicion I did myself a favour by giving up on this total farce.