"Review of Battle LA" or "How Did Michelle Rodriguez Learn to Use a Gun So Quickly?"

These people are dumb. They had plenty of warning that these meteors were coming!

Two weeks ago, Matt and I set out to go see Battle LA. We decided, unwisely it seems, to invite Brian to come with us, he had just returned back from Champaign to live back home (the unfortunate trip that at some time befalls all of us middle-classed students of the University of Illinois). He says he's gotta eat dinner with his family and then he'll come. So I tell him when it is, he says he's bringing Brenden, it's all figured out. Me and Matt are prepared, we get there a half hour early, buy us all tickets (because we are nice guys and don't want the movie to sell out and our buddies who are not there yet to be left in the lurch while we watch Aaron Eckhart take on some gnarly water craving aliens set on a background of the ruined wasteland of a war-ravaged Los Angeles), get some food from the food court in the mall, and wait for those fools to get there. The movie is at 7:45, they arrive at 7:56. We get in there, there are no seats, we go out and exchange our tickets for the next show at 9:20. This is the second night in a row that poor Matt has gone to see this movie and had to buy tickets for the next show, basically investing four hours of his time each night waiting for and viewing this movie. Was it worth it?
We all agreed that this movie was essentially Black Hawk Down but where we were fighting aliens and not Somalis. Basically, Aaron Eckhart plays Micheal Nantz, a Marine Staff Sergeant who just led his troop to their death. He survives, filled with guilt, and is about to be granted his requested release, when Wait! What's this?!? Aliens have arrived in what originally appeared to be meteorites, and Nantz is thrown into the immediate war that ensues. The entire movie focuses on the single troop that is running around Los Angeles with a mission to first save some civilians, every time they think that they have saved some injured soldiers, the helicopter that they are taking gets destroyed on take off by the aliens, once again leaving just the troops and the civilians that made it through the various scary encounters.
This movie is actually better than I am making it sound. The movie's pretty good if you like war movies, and the special effects were really awesome. It's basically just about the relationships between the soldiers, with the aliens merely playing a faceless enemy, who messes stuff up periodically. We all left the theater with a sense that we liked the film, but honestly the whole mess of waiting for the movie cuz it was sold out is what really stands out of my entire Battle LA experience. However, I do really enjoy a movie where they don't feel the need to go through the tiring process of explaining the backstory and origins of the bad guys. Just kill 'em!!!

Final Opinion: 3 Water Craving Aliens out of 5