The best alien invasion films have at their hearts a "real people" contingent, all be them generally of the ham variety. Hammy or not, they work fantastically in the likes of "Independence Day" and "Cloverfield". "Battle: Los Angeles" all but eliminates this, opening in the middle of its titular event - an exponentially larger-scale 9/11, one might say - as seen almost solely through trained and armored eyes. While civilians come and go in the fray, a single jarhead platoon remains firmly our vantage. Weak attempts at relationships and backstories pad the exhausting combat, but like everything not some form of literal explosion they amount to nothing. One early scene I'll admit to admiring for its captured frantic confusion of coming against an unknown hostile, yet by the time this decaying schtick grows tiresome you've still got ninety minutes of movie to endure. Not being a current or former member of the US Armed Forces, maybe I just can't relate.
