Everyone described this film as BLACK HAWK DOWN meets ALIENS and who am I to contradict public opinion . One thing I didn't notice in the reviews was similarity to the John Wyndham novel The Kraken Wakes . Meteors land in the ocean and very quickly alien incursions attack the coastline . One criticism of Wyndham's criminally underrated novel is that if an alien race was this advanced then there's no reason for them to be hostile down to evolutionary psychology . In simplistic terms a civilization alien or otherwise would have to evolve beyond petty tribalsitic squabbles and pool their resources in to conquering physics and mastering interstellar travel . In other words an advanced civilization should in theory be a non aggressive race not bent on conquest

This is speculation of course because there's no evidence that there's life on any other planet and the novels of John Wyndham are quickly forgotten as the laser bolts fly and the aliens emerge from the sea . This is a pity because I was expecting a bit more mystery and suspense allowing the story to breath before the aliens were revealed . It's still not really a great loss at this point because I was still very impressed by the epic scope and spectacle as the marines fly to Camp Pendleton via helicopter dodging airbursts caused by the aliens . As the action then takes place as a ground war in the ruins of LA I was reminded to a certain extent of BLACK HAWK DOWN . The problem after the initial fighting however is that the scale and scope stops and started reminding me of any Michael Bay film you care to mention

Goodbye epic scope and scale we had when the marines were airborne and hello to close up and elliptic editing done via shaky cam . One can understand director Jonathan Liebesman trying to do a sci-fi blockbuster in a realist style but we've seen too many films with " blink and you'll miss it " type editing and you'd think with the utter contempt that many movie fans hold Michael Bay in you'd think most directors would avoid this style rather than constantly embrace it , but no they still continue as if it's part of their job remit . Would I cynical in thinking in this case it's too disguise the fact that the aliens aren't all convincing if you look at them longer than a nanosecond ? Hmm CGI and blink and you'll miss it editing . You spend tens of millions of dollars on a movie and you don't bother hiring an editor or a screenwriter . Remind me why Hollywood producers live in big mansions with a swimming pool while there's so many people with potential living in poverty ?

This is a the type of film like WORLD WAR Z that constantly gets pumped out by Hollywood where there's a germ of a good idea in there somewhere that blossoms in to a big headache inducing mess that makes for a great trailer but doesn't have any substance to sustain it for two hours . Obviously any idiot can be a Hollywood producer but it takes someone of relative intelligence to analyse if they want to spend money watching films like this at the cinema just because the trailer looked good . I'm glad I didn't spend money on a cinema ticket to watch this

This is movie I've never seen before. Watched it today on Netflix. It is great movie with emotional moments and fantastic action. Negative reviews are just rude and making you skip a good action movie.

I watch films of all genres, old and new, good and bad, and while I wasn't completely taken with the idea of Battle:Los Angeles I was interested in seeing it. Unfortunately I didn't like it. I will get the good things out of the way first, the CGI is of decent standard, the bridge siege set-piece is fairly impressive and Aaron Eckhart does try hard, in the beginning he is the best asset of the film portraying the only likable character, even if he is rather clichéd.

However at the halfway mark, Eckhart's character becomes less likable and his performance, which involves a lot of shouting and uttering poorly written and delivered "rousing" speeches, gets weaker. The rest of the acting ranges from just adequate to very poor, particularly Michelle Rodriguez and the less said about her one-liners the better, and they are not helped by the fact that the characters are little more than bland stereotypes that we learn very little about other than the odd snippet of information. The dialogue is very, very weak too, very characterless and cheesy as well, the film is dull in the pace and is too long too and the explosions are shoddy and get too much.

I was especially disappointed in Battle:Los Angeles' direction, which is one of the blandest and soulless directorial jobs I have seen in a long time. The film is very over-edited as well, while I have nothing against shaky cam I do when it adds next to nothing to the proceedings and it was used so much I felt nauseus at the end, and the rest of the set pieces are murky and incoherent. The story is weak and wanders off the point so many times complete with a very narrow world-view, a very unsatisfying ending in the sense it felt tacked on and laughably rubbish alien forces.

In conclusion, Battle: Los Angeles was a movie I tried to like but I couldn't even enjoy it, due to its poor direction and dialogue and its over-editing. 3/10 Bethany Cox