Battle of Los Angeles

This is the Asylum's knock-off imitator of the big BATTLE: L.A., and it's pretty dull. The film is muddled by poor pacing, extreme predictability, characters we don't care about, and lack of scope. Budget reasons no doubt affected the latter, resulting in a film that never really visualized the full extent of its concept; all of the action stays concentrated within a small group. Amidst that microcosm, however, the film has action aplenty, although much of it is hampered by the director's turgid pacing – reaction shots hold forever and are repeated over and over at the expense of engaging editing and propulsive forward motion so that the film even at its most exciting seems to proceed at a snail's pace. Cast does okay, especially Nia Peeples as an Area-51 styled military agent whose skill with a katana sword, however incongruous in the modern military, is thrilling, and Robert Pike Daniel as a crusty old-school soldier who takes pot shots at the alien saucers with a revolver, and steals the whole show. A first-rate synth-and-samples score by Brian Ralston & Kays Al-Atrakchi gives the story what propulsion it manages to gather. As the equivalent of a "B" movie it's passable entertainment for the undemanding, but most of us are demanding coherency and creativity. BoLA's story sustains little of that.

The Mockbuster Factory returns with what may be their most audaciously titled/timed ripoff yet. The big budget sci-fi flick "Battle: Los Angeles" has just hit theaters and a day later "Battle Of Los Angeles" (note the "Of" in the title, people - totally different film!) airs as the SyFy Channel's Saturday Night Original Movie. I wonder how many people were dumb enough to tune in thinking that they were going to be getting the "real" blockbuster for free. If so - joke's on you!! Anyway, I haven't seen the "real" "Battle: Los Angeles," but what I've seen in the trailers, it appears to owe a lot to "Independence Day," and therefore so does "Battle OF Los Angeles." In both versions, a giant spaceship drops out of the skies over the City of Angels, apparently impervious to all Earth weaponry. In the "real" movie, the only ones who can do anything about the alien invasion are a platoon of tough-as-nails U.S. Marines. In the Asylum version, it's a small band of Air National Guardsmen stationed in the hills.

It must be said that the special effects in the first ten or fifteen minutes of "Battle of Los Angeles" actually look somewhat promising. While still characteristically Asylum/SyFy Channel cheap, the invasion/battle scene that opens the film looks like they at least put some kind of effort into it. I would imagine that the majority of the film's (small) budget went into that sequence, as the rest of the film doesn't come close to measuring up to it.

From here, all resemblance to the real "Battle: Los Angeles" ceases. Instead of Aaron Eckhardt and Michelle Rodriguez, we get Kel Mitchell (yes, the former "Welcome to Good Burger, can I take your order?" guy from Nickelodeon) and Nia Peeples. Nia is a sword-swingin' Area 51 ass kicker (aging gracefully in a "Resident Evil" style cat suit) who leads the band of military survivors through the desert (random observation: have you ever noticed how many Asylum films deal with "a small band of survivors traveling through the desert?" I'd say it accounts for a good half of their filmography!)to a final showdown on board the alien ship. I realize this plot description is rather vague, but then that's because as far as I could tell, the film had no real plot to speak of. It's basically a series of random fight scenes, stuff lifted from other (better) movies, lots of people running, guns being fired and stuff blowin' up (in the Asylum's trademark, laughably cheap CGI) and a whole lot of ridiculous dialogue. Shoehorned in for no apparent reason is a fighter pilot from 1942 (?) who is not what he appears to be, a grizzled old airman who tries to shoot down alien ships with a Colt revolver, and "advanced alien weaponry" that looks like it came off the shelves of Toys-R-Us. In short, if you tuned into this movie thinking you were getting the real "Battle: Los Angeles," then you deserve what you got. Bad movie fans who are in on the Asylum's joke will have a hoot and a holler picking apart the usual round of inconsistencies (such as Peeples' suddenly-appearing eye patch) and technical errors. Sit back with a six pack and enjoy. Judging from the reviews I've read of the "real" "Battle Los Angeles" movie, this Asylum-ized version is probably more entertaining anyway.

Take Independence Day and E.T, put then into a blender with two week old garbage and you get the SyFy production Battle of Los Angeles. The acting is over the top with the base commander character as a 1030's mafia thug as some of the worse character acting I've seen in years.

The special effects are marginal at best. The title of the movie and release is certainly to attract a viewer audience that might mistake this for the Battle:Los Angeles film release to theaters on 3/11/2011.

This movie ranks as a new low for the SyFy channel even considering some of the awful movies released bu SyFy the past six months. I recommend it for film students who want to see how not to make a movie. For anyone else give it wide berth or watch it with an air freshener.

Without a doubt, this is the single most horrific display of a low budget Syfy (dare I say) 'original' movie that I have ever laid eyes on. Considering the unbelievably cheesy acting and Jr. High computer class special effects, it's a complete mystery to me that this was actually written, approved and then funded albeit just barely. As if that wasn't enough, it was actually captured on video and edited, sent out for the final review and then advertised, scheduled and finally... tragically, broadcast on a major network. Yet, nowhere along the way did anybody stop and say... "holy mackerel, this is a complete piece of dung! We can't release this..." Nope! It was shamelessly put forth upon the world and I had the misfortune of seeing it with my own eyes and could not believe what I was witnessing. It's very possible that this production will live in infamy for EONS. And if more people than the 275 remaining Syfy channel fans actually get a chance to see this piece of ...., it could take the place of worst movie ever!

It is a tragedy that there is people filming these crap and worst of all, some people pay money to buy or rent bullshit like that... Horrible... parody... bad effects... something like actors but definitely NOT ACTORS tricky title to fool the fools... unbelievable bad scenario... there was not ONE minute of at least BAD filming... all of it was JUST GARBAGE... take this for granted. it may be the worst film you ve ever watched, and that only IF you manage to watch this all... i just FF it to see if the end could be such a crap as the whole film. And surprise!!! it was worst!!! for god's shake do not try to watch it, it is mind-mixer and make you feel sick