Battle: Los Angeles: Review By Dark enV

I'd been looking forward to seeing this film since I saw the first trailer. I was a bit worried walking into the theater thinking this could be like Skyline, and I'm happy to say it wasn't anything like it. Movies like these really get my imagination going as a filmmaker. The action sequences in this were awesome, the acting wasn't horrible, but it wasn't fantastic either.

The visuals were very well done I thought, and with a projected budget of $70 million compared to the $150 million for another alien themed movie, Mars Needs Moms, I say the filmmakers used it fairly wisely. To me this film was Black Hawk Down meets Cloverfield with a hint of District 9. Looking at films like this I'm not expecting a fantastic storyline or amazing characters, because if you go into a film like this with that all in mind you'll come out very disappointed because that's not what these films are for. They're meant to be fun and action packed.

Director Jonathan Liebsman, who will be directing the Clash of the Titans sequel Wrath of the Titans, seems to have a pretty decent sense of how to get great action shots done and present a nice feel for the film, I just hope with Wrath of the Titans he has a great story and character development to follow all of that to hopefully redeem it's predecesor. The movie was a lot like playing Call of Duty, which for me was fun but at times it would give me a headache.

The story overall was very basic for an alien invasion movie, some have called it Independence Day 2011, and yes it's similar, you know who's going to win and all but it's not exactly the same thing. I found this film to be a great start for the summer movie season coming up, starting with Thor in May.

Overall Grade: B