Invasion!!

On a lighter, more relaxing note, I caught the trailer of Battle: Los Angeles while on holiday last week. So decided to check it out on the net today. Turns out there's quite a bit of alien SF movies coming our way. About time. The 'next' Indepedence Day movie has been long overdue.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/08/18/complete-guide-to-upcoming-alien-invasion-movies/

It surely reminds me of War of the Worlds with lasers firing from those tripods!! Bzzzt bzzzt....

Of the movies, Skyline has already shown and the DVD and Blu-Rays should be out soon. Unfortunately, internet reaction has not been good. Apparently it is made in the style of Blair Witch Project and viewers complains about a pointless movie.

The Battlefield Los Angeles movie seems to be a lot more promising as it is from the viewpoint of a platoon of U.S. marines. Supposed to debut March 11, this Friday but not here in Malaysia I think (have not seen the trailers here, was very impressed when I saw it overseas).

The 'Monsters' movie seems promising as well. As is Iron Sky, about Nazi Germany coming back from the moon !

Another alien invasion movie seemingly ignored is the Avengers movie featuring the invasion of aliens and defence by Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, etc.

Life's good when one is a sci-fi fan.

Hi Wongkn,

Another sci-fi movie for your consideration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbupyeGlBPA&feature=player_detailpage

Soonthas,

THANKS !! I caught a glimpse of this trailer somewhere but could not locate it again.

Hi Wongkn,

I'm looking forward for its BD release, the exciting space battle scenes are like the 80's japanese animation - Macross: Do U Remember Love, or Robotech ( in US series ).
Hopefully Macross will appear too someday in cinema.

By BD you mean blu-ray right ? Movies like these should be watched in HD.

Hi Wongkn
Yes, BD is blu ray disc. You are correct, they should be watched in HD for better sound and picture quality.

Not so much of an invasion movie...
But I love "Predator" by Arnold, and also the latest instalment..

Forgive me for indulging this kind of gruesome no brainer kind of stuff.

But as we all male species have it... we love danger and violent sometimes, and also our instinct to protect and fight for the fairer sex.

Just glad that we dont need to do it for real to show our manhood, as the movie has presented our pride quite correctly; even if we wanted to, I dont think we have "Predator" of this kind in our jungle right? Or do we need to seek it at Guatemala? haha...

Oh, the original Arnold Predator to me is a classic. None of the sequels came anywhere close. I read that when Arnold made that movie, the special effects that he required was beyond the technology of that time and so he had to settle for lesser, not so impressive special effects. Nevertheless, Arnold carries any movie he stars in (though of course he has his lemons as well).

While about Arnold Swarzenegger, one of the greatest mis-casting I have seen in a movie must have been (IMO) Batman and Robin. They casted Arnold as Mr. Freeze and he totally outshone George Clooney who was Batman. I have always felt that Arnold would make the ultimate Batman. He can give that kind of serious kill you by his looks growl on the face and he has the physical presence.

I just bought Skyline and Monsters DVD just now. Will be watching it this weekend to see if they are worth recommending to fellow sci-fi fans or not. For movies which I am not sure of the calibre and worthiness, I usually buy those 'type' of DVDs as they are cheap. Then watch it and if they are worthy, then only go buy a Blu-Ray (in any of the 3 forms : original, 'those types', or downloaded ones).

Hi Wongkn,

I watched some parts of downloaded Skyline 2 months ago, to me it's not worth for BD collection... little bit on the low budget type of film, good quality of 'those types' can be considered; you have to decide if for original dvd.

To me, a movie must have a reasonably good storyline first and foremost. The story must have proper ending and so forth. The characters especially must have good 'feel'. The special effects is 2nd. This is why of all the sci-fi shows, the original Star Trek series of movies (minus Star Trek the motion picture) are my all time favourites, especially Star Trek 2, 3, and 4. Those movies have a great 'feeling' about them, especially to a Trekkie and while there are special effects, the story and especially the dialogues take center stage. In this respect, I am much less of a Star Wars fan, especially the last three episodes (1, 2, and 3 about the clone war and rise of the dark side).

Anyway I just finished watching Skyline. It is a mix of War Of the worlds (the recent Tom Cruise version) and Invasion of the body snatchers and a little bit of Starship Troopers. The special effects are OK, they are quite nicely done and especially doesn't over-dominate the movie as a whole as some sci-fi movies tend to do (e.g. Transformers and especially Star Wars 1, 2, 3). Unfortunately, while the concept of the movie is OK (again War of the worlds like), the execution of the ending is especially lacking. It's as if it suddenly turned from war of the worlds to a video game ! The ending is that silly. It seems so contrived, almost like the writers had a mental block, don't know how to properly end the story and then simply came out with the lamer. I wouldn't waste money buying the BR, not even the proper DVD. This one is forgettable.

I also bought Monsters and Tron Legacy. Let's see how they fare. Supposedly Tron Legacy is quite OK when compared to the original TRON movie.

Apparently the upcoming "Battle: Los Angeles" has similarity with Skyline. Both of them are in lawsuit, can read more here: http://themovieblog.com/2010/08/battle-los-angeles-vs-skyline

Hmmm.... But I do hope Battle: Los Angeles do not have a similar lame storyline as Skyline. At least I hope they have more substantial 'battle' scenes. So if the story is lame, at least there are some eye 'candy' (specials effects, besides the usual female casts).

It seems there is still no replacement for 'Independence Day' then.

After reading the article, I now know roughly what to expect of Battle: Los Angeles. I hope BLA has a better story flow than Skyline. Also, based on what I see from the BLA trailers, and after watching Skyline, I think BLA has totally no worries at all. The battle scene in Skyline are totally insignificant. There was only 1 all out assault on the Alien mother craft and even that was by remote controlled drones. After that, there were a couple of shots of F16s and Raptors, inconsequential as they were not really involved in a battle, more like 'accessory', to complement the two main actor/actress in the final chase scene. No ground forces and no real dogfight. And Skyline stole so many scenes from other movies, it's more like a B-grade movie.

Sorry for blowing a bit of the storyline. If you are a fanatical sci-fi fan, then do watch Skyline just to pass the time. But if you want something more substantial, then don't waste your time or money. But at least I watched the whole movie. For Cloverfield, I simply fast forwarded the bulk of the movie.

For me, Independence Day is all time favorite, hope that BLA will come close or even better than ID4. Can't wait for its release!

Agreed on the Skyline, just watched it last weekend and those battle you mentioned were projected through a lcd, no effect at all.

Catching this @ local GSC midnite tonite..

Great ! Please update us on quality of special effects and also quality of story-line (no spoilers la of course, but generally how you feel of the story as in lame, interesting, etc). Especially how it compares to Skyline IF you have seen that movie as well.

If the sound quality is good, I can watch the BD version and get some "massage" from the subwoofers.

Caught this at KLCC last night. Quite nice if a bit simplistic

Thanks for the update. Waiting for Andrew to put in his feedback.

In the meantime, I can tell you guys to give 'Monsters' a miss, even for DVD. I just watched it and it is really a love story first and the monsters are just a side-show for the love-story. There are hardly any fighting worth mentioning. And the monsters looked suspicious 'borrowed' from Skyline.

Ever since Cloverfield, it seems they don't make monsters or invasion movies like they used to. But BLA seems to have hope.

WongKN wrote:Great ! Please update us on quality of special effects and also quality of story-line (no spoilers la of course, but generally how you feel of the story as in lame, interesting, etc). Especially how it compares to Skyline IF you have seen that movie as well.

Sorry for the delay. Here's my short take:

Story line: Errr... what story line? Just make sure you have enough "story" to link one shootout or explosion to the next one.

Special effects: Decent enough. Some people complain about the intentional jerky picture but I have no issues.

Overall as long as you leave your brains and logic at home its a pretty decent moving to while away 2 hours. I consider it better than Skyline and my wife agrees. Skyline was ok till the ridiculous "ending".