Battle Los Angeles

A grandiose contribution to the giant weird films about capitalist realism, covered with a very sparse "docu-camera" veil and a dynamic war action ala Black Hawk Down. Except for the occasionally successful Scott / Bigelow thefts, Liebesman has completely failed - the film is absolutely dysfunctional, uninteresting, completely devoid of emotion and literally overflowing with hellish dialogues that stick repulsively in the chosen pseudo-authentic tone of storytelling (... the U.S. didn't sponsor the film. Marine Corps by chance?). Sometimes the visual (repulsive digital characters) creaks a lot, but it disappears in the cacophony of all the components. A movie with no balls, no rhyme, no reason, no magic. Perfect filling of the epic fail box. Did anyone even read the script before they approved the budget? P.S. For nitpickers... Capitalist realism is not my idea, but a commonly used term - it really works for propaganda films such as Independence Day or Battle Los Angeles (threats to democratic values by primitive destructive force from the unknown, military leaders or politicians who lead the collective unwaveringly to victory...) Ideology lives long and blissfully... (03/07/2011)

Black Hawk Down meets District 9 and Independence Day. A great cliché lurks around every corner. A group of soldiers (the commander "with a past", his white, black and yellow men, who also of course include a female pilot who "happens" to know a lot, and of course a few adult and child civilians) are fighting with aliens who resemble mechanical Predators with the intelligence of inmates of an institute for space idiots. It is done very effectively, but unfortunately in a completely undramatic and empty way. Because of the stupid script, I didn't believe in the characters at all. A big mistake and a shame all in one. That said, certain scenes are really good, it just needed to be more original and steal less from other films. That gets it two and a half mediocre stars. (04/08/2011)

The rate of use of the word civilian greatly exceeds the rate of fire. In fact, it is used to liberally that I started thinking that they were trying to make it the most universal expression in modern English - the mind boggles at all the places where creators wanted to slip in their darned civilian. So at least it made them happy, even if they couldn’t do the same for the audience. A movie with civilian (read spoiled) shaky shots where even civilians (read boars) are lost for words. (05/22/2011)

It's propaganda. Join the U.S. Marines because they're the best men on the planet and John Wayne is proud of them. World Invasion is a guilty pleasure. Despite the idiotic screenplay which is full of pathos, there are some damn spectacular action sequences, explosions, shootings and footage of a beautifully broken Los Angeles. A comparison with Crysis would be spot on. All it’s missing is a nanosuit. Aaron Eckhart as "Mr. Staff Sergeant" is the kind of military Jesus with a human face who makes the hardest of decisions and is seen as "heroic". The other soldiers are here to die (for him) or to follow him into one last battle. Yes, it’s that much of a cliché. But that doesn't matter (it's actually an incredible source of fun that keeps you smiling nearly all the way through), on top of that everything looks and sounds so good - Bryan Tyler creates a very nice soundtrack behind the heroic babbling and machine gun fire. "You'll be surfing soon, Simmons." (03/26/2011)

I am not the target audience and I already knew what I was getting into with this film, so I was not disappointed in any way. However, I will not give it a higher rating just because of that. The Cold War ended, and so it was necessary to find a new target and a worthy opponent for the American marines who could resist them for at least a few hours. It is not so much because it is pathetic, pro-American, and who knows what else, it is simply because it is too dull, monotonous, and predictable for me. As a teenager, I would have definitely added a star, but I stand by my review. Overall impression: 25%. (04/19/2011)