Review of "Battle of Los Angeles," DVD

 Review of

Battle of Los Angeles, DVD

Two out of five stars

Poorly acted with  “borrowed” plot

 This movie is based very much on the blockbuster “Independence Day.” A large disc-shaped ship hovers over Los Angeles and fires a powerful weapon from the lower center. That weapon creates an expanding circle of destruction emanating outward from the center of the ship. It is an alien invasion of some kind, yet there is never any determination of the real reason why they are now on Earth.

 The center of initial resistance is a local military unit with a commander that takes the gruff, hard-nosed military leader persona more than a little over the top. There is an air squadron nearby that is scrambled to meet the alien threat, but they prove to be generally ineffectual.

 From this point, the action and direction is difficult to follow, there is a mini-Roswell type research structure in the Los Angeles area. Most of the weapons that the American soldiers have are standard issue rifles, handguns and grenades, there is a deviation from this that mimics what happens in the move “Men In Black.”

 I found the movie tedious and uninteresting with one moment of outright hilarity. That is when a tough woman with a samurai style sword jumps onto an alien fighter and destroys it by stabbing it. This is a spaceship capable of surviving the tough environment of space, the idea that it could be destroyed by penetrating the hull with a sword was one that I found hilarious.

 The special effects will also be interpreted as second-rate by viewers familiar to what appears in other science fiction movies. It would have been very helpful if we were to learn precisely why the aliens are on Earth and what their motives are.