Battle of Los Angeles

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.

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.

Making a good quality sci-fi movie is not an easy work. There are some movie that we can call a not so good movie or even a bad and awful movie. But talking about Battle of Los Angeles, believe me, this is not a movie, this is totally torture. If you want to know how to waste your time in the worst way, then it's for you.

It is obvious that the movie want to ride the hype of Battle: Los Angeles. Even so, please make something that at least worth to watch. Do not expect anything from the story, The title should be "Independence day vs Alien vs Ninja". The technology used in this movie reminds me of Japanese TV series Ultraman circa 60s Sigh..I wonder what were they thinking making this movie. I don't really care about the character in this so-called movie except the ninja/samurai girl (and it's because of the outfit? maybe..)

Movie should be entertaining and giving you impression to remember. Whether it's fun, scared, blue or anything but angry to your self for wasting your time. This is what you will get by watching this.

This would probably be in the worst 100 science fiction movies of all time. The script writers obviously passed it off to their kids. The director didn't come out of his trailer, the stars should have stayed in theirs. The special effects were the best part of the film, and these looked like a high school project. The sets are ridiculous, the military installations are positively laughable. The only people in this film that actually seemed to pay attention to their job was the wardrobe department, but then military uniforms do not require that much imagination. Why does syfy create this rubbish? I suspect it so that people will turn of the television and go outside in the sun for a few hours. At least that would be a reasonable justification for making this film. Considering watching this film - it is not even bad enough to be funny - just don't and say you did. No one will know the difference. I pretty sure the editor stopped watching it during the cutting.

OK let me admit I am often mildly entertained in that this movie is so bad kinda way when I watch the Syfy Satruday Movie Spectacular. Because they are such spectacularly badly made films and on the off occasion there is a good sometimes even great film hiding there,well not this time. I want my 45 minutes back thats how far I got before I just couldn't take it anymore a first for me. Normally I sit through the terrible movies while playing on my laptop. I couldn't do it and in fact had to go see the real Battle Los Angeles today due to feeling so grimy from the previous night. The story if you can call it that is a fusion of Skyline and Battle L.A. and several other films the acting is worse the horrible with a script so poorly written I can't believe anyone green lighted it. CGI is so bad yet had scope it just didn't have detail or quality had this movie been released ten years ago u might have thought how cool was that but now its like wth I seen better CGI in commercials, even some films from ten years ago look better than this omg its just that bad avoid at all costs.