Battle Los Angeles is an 2011 alien invasion movie starring Aaron Eckhart. Hey, does Will Smith know people keep making new Independence day films without him? The film’s full title seems to be “World Invasion, Battle Los Angeles 2011”. What?
Throughout modern history there have been eyewitness UFO reports of alien spacecraft. Their motives have never been understood… until now. Every major city in the world is under attack by alien forces. This is the story of a Marine platoon facing off against the invaders in the battle of Los Angeles.
According to the Wikipedia entry The film premise is inspired by the 1942 Battle of Los Angeles incident in which a presumed enemy attack, later deemed a “false alarm”, led to an hour-long anti-aircraft artillery bombardment over the city of Los Angeles.
The film was directed by directed by filmmaker Jonathan Liebesman and has a fairly strong cast including Michelle Rodriguez, Arron Eckhart, Bridget Moynahan, and the R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo (Shaffer Chimere Smith Jr).
Michelle Rodriguez does what she does best, portraying Marine Corpse Technical Sergeant Elana Santos. She can keep playing tough chicks for as long as she wants. I never get tired of her in these roles. In fact, they should re-shoot all the scenes of Vasquez in “Aliens” and re-cast Rodriguez in Jenette Goldstein’s old role.
I have also enjoyed many of the films Aaron Eckhart has appeared in, although I don’t recall ever having seen him in a military role before. It should be interesting to see the normally sophisticated and soft spoken actor as a combat Marine.
While I generally don’t approve of singer-songwriters trying to be actors I get the feeling that Ne-Yo is probably a good choice. I’ll revisit that later.
I never did see skyline, the other recent alien invasion movie.Battle: Los Angeles looks a little more interesting. I think I prefer to see movies from a soldier’s perspective rather than that of self important Hollywood 20 somethings (or Will Smith).
I can’t help but wonder if any selections from the Rage against the Machine album “The Battle of Los Angeles” will be included on the film’s soundtrack.
