Day 105: "They're dead, I'm here. Like the punch line to some bad joke."

After sitting through some recent alien invasion movies, I found that they tend to be watchable about half the time, lousy a quarter, and really good a quarter.  Skyline was crap.  District 9 was great.  Today's movie: Battle Los Angeles falls inbetween, but more toward the good end of the spectrum.  A slam, bang, blow everything up alien war movie, Battle Los Angeles was fun to watch, but tended to take itself a bit too seriously.  The story begins with aliens landing off the coastlines of most countries in what appear to be meteor storms.  The aliens then quickly invade the cities along the coasts, conquering most.  Los Angeles is the exception.  A group of marines is sent into the city to rescue a group of civilians left stranded.  Honestly, it reminded me heavily of Black Hawk Down.  Not only in story, but the level and intensity of the violence was just as strong in most places.  Lots of explosions, alien blood and guts, and soldiers dying heroically, BLA was actually very good.  I was not a big fan of Independence Day, as I felt the scope was much too big for the given timeframe (really, the invading army arrives, conquers the entire world, and is eventually defeated by a Morse Code contacted, global army and a homebrewed computer virus within the span of 4 DAYS?!?! ), but this shows us one local battle in a global war.  Much more concise and streamlined.

Aaron Eckhart plays the "getting too old for this" Staff Sgt. Nantz.  A weary warrior on the verge of retirement (where is Danny Glover when you need him?), Sgt. Nantz is a perfect hero in this, leading his young troops into a desperate battle against overwhelming odds.  The troops that he commands are played by relative newcomers and they show the horror and shock of the situation very well.

I almost hate to admit I liked this, as many cliches as I have been pulling from my bag of tricks here, but it was fun.  If the aliens from District 9 had arrived in a bad mood and wanting our world for themselves, this is the likely story that would have occurred.  Check it out if you're in the mood for something mindless and fun.  7.5/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!