im gonna see this.

No kids or Shia Lebouf, so it might turn out to be a good action alien invasion movie for once.

Looks sweet....

I like the documentary/news media feel. Of course Ill be rooting for Humanity's finest. Wonder how it'll end. Independence day was stupid, I dont think this will be like that. The Aliens actually launch a ground assault.

Time to break out those super weapons from area 51 or bring all of those Nazi scientists out of cryo-sleep.

The Nazi scientists would he defeated when the aliens give them an iPhone with an angry birds app.

@kingdomcome: lol

i hope it's not like cloverfield.....or as i like to call it godzilla meets blar witch.....

Anyone see this yet? It's getting really bad reviews.

Think Independence Day remake.

Never was ID fan.

It doesn't start till Midnight tonight.

It's a popcorn flick so smart film it will not be, though the action is supposed to be pretty good. It's not supposed to be as corny as ID4 either.

funny how this is titled Battle Los Angeles & on Saturday at 9pm the sci fi channel will air a Sci fi original movie titled Battle OF Los Angeles.

How silly.

Same premise of Aliens attacking.

I guess since their name is Syfy now , they think they can rip ideas from hollywood and just name them slightly differently

Seen many comments that it's actually pretty entertaining if you just want some action. The main reason for the bad critic reception is that it's not much of a movie with almost no story. Basically like 90% of the film is following marines battling aliens in Los Angeles and it's like Black Hawk Down meets Aliens. Not really much story or characters too it, and it's mostly set up like watching an embedded report of a war against aliens.

Still want to see it for the action

A BIT OF A SPOILER, SO DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

Saw it and liked it. if they could have expanded on the story it would have been really good. All in all it was very entertaining. Good firefights and stressful combat situations. I was surprised three of the Marines that survived the movie were black guys. Usually they kill off most if not all of the black guys in movies. The Aliens were actually cool. They were invading earth for our water. They used it as fuel and to consume. In these firefights the Aliens actually reacted like sentient creatures with some type of emotion. In one fight you see an alien trooper dragging a wounded comrade out of the line of fire and they have officers and NCO's giving orders.
Our military is actually not caught off guard and mobilizes before the invasion commences. They figure it out when the meteor swarm suddenly appears near earth never being detected and then as they descend into our atmosphere they dont hit terminal velocity, but slow as they land in the ocean. The Aliens are tough as is their armor and weapons, but they like a knight in full plate have weaknesses in their armor. Also they dont have laser weapons ,but more like rail rifles and smart missiles...and their pretty damn agile.
Their entire Air force consist of drones and there in lies their weakness. They have these giant command and control ships that keep their fighters and bombers in order. Where ever they are concealed a huge power outage occurs and this is how they locate the LA one. Air Force intel had this figured out and were in the process of trying to locate them. This is found out through Michelle Rodriguez who is an AF intel SGT. The Marines are rescued by a Army Huey and while enroute to our lines they see a huge area of the city that is blacked out(its at night). They end up going in to the area(which is way behind Alien lines) and locate the drone command ship burried under a bunch of rubble...they go into the sewers and locate it. There are seven marines left...Michelle Rodriguez,Two face, the three black guys, two white guys. A huge firefight erupts between a squad of Aliens and the Marines. Two-face wants to set up his laser designator and call in a missile strike on the command ship. The drone fighters can detect communication signals(this is how they locate out troops) and one of the white Marines volunteers to get up on top of this wrecked building to notify our side and call in the copperhead strike. He succeeds, but is detected by a drone and his killed. They end up knocking out the drone command ship which in turn eliminates the drone fighters.The other six soldiers survive.
Earlier in the movie they carve up a wounded Alien in order find its weakness. One of the civilians they rescue is a Veterinarian and helps with the dissection. the Aliens weak spot is just right of where our heart would be.
There a Saving Private Ryan battle earlier in the movie where a squad of Aliens troops have a mobile missile launcher they are pushing around. They knock out an Abrams with it and kill a few of the Marines...like the Germans pushing the 20mm AA gun around. I liked the movie and will buy it on Blue Ray when it comes out. Its just a good action movie with some tense moments and good battle scenes. The Aliens act "Human", using cover ,saving their wounded and showing fear.

Also the marines do reload their weapons and run low on ammo. The movies was realistic in that respect. They pick up ammo of dead soldiers and share mags when they are in fire fights and running low on ammo. theres this little Italian marine(one of the survivors) who kills a bunch of Alien troopers with his M203 Grenade launcher. He ambushes them as they enter the building the Marines are held up in. He pumps them right into the Alien troopers as they rush the door. That armor wasnt stopping a 40mm HE round in the chest. He also helps knock out this big hovering gun platform the Aliens have at the end of the movie with that M203.

It was a fun movie, not your typical hollywood alien invasion movie, must more like a war movie which was a nice change of pace from having some A list actor acting all cocky and cracking jokes with horrible kid subplots.

Be good if they make more and expand on the storyline about the aliens as lot of the movie was vague in favor of sticking to the battle. Should do well, movie was relatively low budget at around 70mil and it made already almost 40mil in the US alone so I assume we might get sequels.

Yes they need to expand the plot.

Overall I give this movie a C+

Everything that Bill mentioned was what I liked about the movie. But there were aspects of it that were a bit too re-hashed. Overall, I think the film had a great opportunity to include some really new idea's but skipped the chance. Some of the firefights were a little bit reminiscent of the herky jerky style of cinematography from Black Hawk Down, which is not a bad thing, but has been done before. As is the plot, of being caught behind enemy lines in a thick urban area, without back up or clear lines of extraction.

Comparisons to ID4 are inevitable, because there are some really corny 1 liners, some really bad script writing, although the acting wasn't bad and the actors seemed to make the best of what they were given. The audience doesn't really feel an emotional investment in anyone they're watching except for maybe the main character, who is dealing with a past reputation of getting his men killed.

The aliens were interesting , but not horrific, which is probably more realistic than aliens from previous movies, but sometimes realistic doesn't make for excitement.

Overall the CGI and special effects were very well done, I think, with very believable looking aliens, even though they wore a lot of armor, which made them look a little transformers-ish.

I'd watch the movie again on Netflix, but wouldn't bother owning it or seeing it in the movies for a second time.

Well they are soldiers(the Aliens) why is the fact their wearing armor bad? The herky jerky style of cinematography is a good thing. Why is it bad to use it more than a couple of times.
Being caught behind enemy lines when your world is being invaded and having no idea about the capabilities of your enemy is a great aspect. Could the movie have been done better...sure.
Perhaps if they made a series of this movie it would be much better. More character development and build up to the invasion. Perhaps mini stories of Soldiers of other nations fighting. Our military(The World) adapting and developing tactics and better weapons or ammunition to deal with the threat...AP bullets, ect.. You can only jam so much into a 2 hour movie. Just enjoy the combat and its accompanying stress and the movie does well.
ID4 sucked. Will Smith cracking his stupid macho jokes and punching the Alien pilot and knocking him out was idiotic. The Aliens were wearing biological exoskeletons. It was bad. The Aliens were beaten within a week or so. The end of Battle LA the war was not over. We(Humanity) simply had a better chance to repulsing them.

It's not that the cinematography was bad, it wasn't, it's just that it's been done before, so there's no novelty to it. It almost makes it seem like a gimmick. This style of "viewer in the action" camera work can and has been used to great effect. For instance, have you ever seen the ghetto combat scene in "children of men "? That still gave you the feeling of being in the action, but it was done differently than other movies. It was refreshing and new. Same with Private Ryan when it first came out.. it was like a traumatic experience for someone watching for the first time. This just seemed worn out, at least in my opinion.

I don't think ID4 sucked. It had it's weaknesses, sure, but no one can complain about seeing the white house, empire state building, and other landmarks getting blown to smithereens. It was new, refreshing, even with Jeff Goldblooms annoyingness. How many movies before ID4 boasted realistic looking dogfighting between alien aircraft and human jet fighters ? Sure it was cheezy, and the idea of the president of the united states strapping himself into a warplane, seemed downright corny, but come on.. it friggin had Randy Quaid in it !

ID4 is certainly not in the category of sci -fi movies like Aliens, Starwars, Star Trek, the Matrix, and it's kind, but it will be remembered for being an entertaining, larger than life summer blockbuster.

This movie, on the other hand, will forever languish in the unrecognized trash heap of all the other mediocre sci-fi action flix. Because that's what it was, Mediocre, which is why I think I was generous in giving it a C+

Critics rate action movies as if they're supposed to be dramatic masterpieces with amazing stories.

Shit, man. Aliens invade, people're like "WTF", everyone is dying, and then the Marines kick some ass. It's fun, stuff explodes, and we win. That's a good action movie, to me. Are there other standards we should care about?

I agree.

I found out why the Aliens in this flick couldnt obliterate us. They werent a militant race. Their home planet was destroyed and they were trying to colonize us. They were advanced, but not that advanced militarily. The invasion was out of desperation.

It's not so much that you judge an action movie on acting or complicated plots and drama. But I do think they should be judged on originality, immersion, special effects, suspense, and excitement.

If you have a flick with all of those things, you've got a great action movie. If you've got a flick with only a few of those things, you've got a mediocre action move. If you've got a flick with maybe only 1 of those things going for it, you've got a crappy action movie.

And your point is? I was just relaying background info.