Battle for L.A

We saw Battle for L.A tonight and liked it. Sitting in  a theater surrounded by Marines was actually a fun way to watch a film about Marines. You could hear from them what was either just wrong or slightly inconsistent in a war zone. There were many times we chuckled at what we overheard as well as what we were saying. Surprisingly enough we didn't hear even one "OORAH" from the crowd. The movie starred Aaron Eckhart who did quite a convincing job as a Staff Sergeant. They of course had one token "tough" chick played by Michelle Rodriguez and she was nothing if not cliche. Aside from her the rest of the acting was good.

This film was FAR superior to recent box office failure Skyline. This was a nice mix of military and sci-fi genres. What I guess I appreciated the most was the lack of wasted film time. Let me elaborate here; in a lot of movies there's a lot of "filler" time where it's mostly scenic shots or non-sense (unnecessary) conversations that never become an actual part of the screenplay.

Okay, that being said what I liked the least was the lack of "behind the curtain" scenes with the aliens. I like when films show what and how the creatures behave and interact amongst one another. There wasn't really much of that. Amazingly there wasn't much gore either so it's a safe flick for tweens and teens (not younger then 13-ish), of course depending on lifestyle.

There was a scene where Eckhart was talking to a young boy (10-12ish) and explaining a few things. He told the boy something along the lines of "your the best Marine (yada- yada, moto blah-blah)". James and I started poking fun by saying "here, just sign these papers", mocking the enlistment process. We went on to mockingly ask questions like, "Sexual preference", "Religion in case you die" and "Do you have flat feet". Once we got to the flat feet we acted as though the boy said yes so we replied (as Eckhart) "Oh, well get lost then". Yeah, we know it was wrong but that's kind of what we do in movies. It was at an entirely inappropriate time which of course made it better! There were people around us crying and we were trying to keep from laughing too loudly. It was AWESOME!

Bottom line we recommend this film if you like story filled sci-fi and/or Military films. Disaster films are an obvious here. If you get overly emotional or have a guy in a war zone then it's probably not for you. Oh and don't bother staying until after the credits because there isn't a scene. Interesting fact: some of the extras were actual Marines from our very own USMC base!