Battle Los Angeles

Battle Los Angeles is rather similar in plot to last year's Skyline - aliens invade Los Angeles. However, it decides to focus on the military response rather than the civilians caught up in it and has a rather bigger budget and more recognisable cast (more recognisable in the sense that you might actually be able to name one or two of them rather than going "Oh its him off that thing on TV"). Its also a better film, but not as much better as you would hope for.

It could probably win several awards for bad science (if they're hitting the earth they're meteorites, not meteors) and terrible geography (aliens land in the sea and attack coastal cities including Paris!) as well as some questionable military tactics. It has dialogue that ranges from the dreadful to the so bad that its actually quite good (my favourite being "we've already had breakfast"). They plotnotes and character arcs are stereotypical and utterly predictable - you know just who is going to be reconciled to whom, who will make it and who won't, etc... It borrows heavily from the predictable sources - Independance Day, War of the Worlds, Aliens, etc...

However, once you get past all that and a horrendous meet the characters opening section and get into the action, its actually a lot more fun than it has any right to be. Director Jonathan Liebesman handles the action efficiently, if with no great flare, and the cast give good value to their limited roles. Aaron Eckhart is the Sergeant whose last mission went badly wrong, Michelle Rodriguez essentially plays the same role she did in Avatar and Michael Pena plays the civilian dad caught up in the middle of things. At times it feels like it wants to have pretensions to be Platoon with aliens, but is actually much better when it stops taking itself seriously and just keeps the action rolling.

Overall - 6/10 Loud, dumb and unoriginal, but entertaingly action packed and surprisingly fun.