Scott:Tonight we are reviewing Battle: Los Angeles.  This movie features aliens overrunning Los Angeles and unlike real life, these aliens aren't from south of the border.

What did I think?

It was thoroughly ok.  The writing was comical at times, and the actors overacted in others.  The sound effects were good though and the visual effects, specifically the firepower, was cool.

The movie starred Aaron Eckhart as SSgt. Nichael Nantz as the experienced veteran leading a bunch of younger and often inexperienced marines.  He's getting ready to retire, and has even put in his papers when some crazy Predator looking things show up off the beach.  Like many heroes, he has no choice but to go in to battle.

There are about 50 marines in his unit (or so it seems).  There are so many, and they are all wearing the same camouflage, that you have a hard time distinguishing them.  The leader, by rank, of the unit is 2nd Lt. William Martinez (Ramon Rodriquez).  He's just graduated from officer’s school and knows everything there is to know.  Mike (who was sitting beside me, but couldn't make the review) pointed out that this is our red-shirt guy (Star Trek reference).  That means we didn't think he would live long.

Other notable military were Cpl. Kevin Harris (Ne-Yo), Corpsman Jibril Adukwu (Adetokumboh M'Cormack) and TSgt. Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez).

If you wanted to find a movie that you could compare this too, the best would be Independence Day.  Where Independence Day had Air Force vs. Alien Air Force, this had ground force vs. Alien ground force.  A lot of the lines and ideas in this movie seemed directly taken from Independence Day.  At one point, I had two different people quoting me a line from Independence Day that we almost expected SSgt. Nantz to say.  The movies are different, but the plots are very similar.

This isn't director Jonathan Liebesman's first movie.  This movie, like Darkness Falls which he also directed, contained several unintentionally funny scenes.  When you watch movies you are supposed to take them with a grain of salt, but sometimes the scenes are just a little too over-the-top.

Writer Christopher Bertolini doesn't have a lot of movie credits to his name.  There was some bad lines in the movie.  Some were funny when they shouldn't have been and others were straight out of the book on how to write reactions to a first battle.  Yelling at your fellow combatant to suck it up is so cliché at this point.

I really did like the sound mixing.  The use of sound to build suspense worked well.  The early introduction of the alien sounds carried well through the movie and didn't flake off.

How did I rate this movie?

Overall, it was average.  As a sci-fi/action flick it was better than average.  There are so many unwatchable sci-fi movies, that being better than average isn't that hard a challenge.  I give it s 2.5/5 overall and a 3/5 for sci-fi movie.