The world is being attacked by aliens and we are being taken over. We follow a platoon of Marines in Los Angeles as they try to follow orders while having direct contact with these aliens.

While watching this movie I kept thinking back to the movies that came before it to make this possible. From the alien invasion perspective there’re films like: Independence Day and The War of the Worlds; and from the war film perspective there’s also films like: Saving Private Ryan, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket; and this is what all of those movies spawned.

It’s not that this movie was bad; it’s just that since I’ve seen all of those movies before I guess I just expected more. I’ve figured out that it’s not hard to play a marine in films, because if you look at the character of a marine he’s just a random person who’s dumb enough to enlist and has just realised that they’re about to have to fight for their survival. There’re marines who’re the marine’s that are just scared shitless, and they’re marines who’ve been on multiple tours already and knows how to keep their calm in battle. The character specifics after that never feel detailed enough for me in movies like this.

SSgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is the marine who’s been around for two decades and made a reputation for himself. He’s the one that no one wants commanding them because there’re a lot of rumours of him being a bit of a cowboy and his men not always surviving. We learn as it goes along that there’s a lot more to it than that – obviously – and even though we go through the film hearing all these murmurs we know that moment is going to come when he has to confront it and we get this massive monologue that’s supposed to bring the remaining team members together to follow him, but it just doesn’t hit the level that any of the monologues from every other war film that precedes this does. I would put Bill Murray’s speech about American Army Men being mutts a notch above this one.

The films falls short in no only character building, but general writing. It feels like the filmmakers thought they could get by on visuals alone. I understand that when you’re discussing a film about war, especially one like this where the story is compacted into this short timeline you shouldn’t expect a lot of pauses from out characters where they stay still and actually converse about themselves and build a character, but the fact that the film couldn’t get the opposite to become an all engaging experience that didn’t allow for you to spend a moment questioning why there’s a lack of general plot and just full immerse yourself in this experience that’s being handed to you. So at no point do you find yourself caring about this company or their mission, which is why this movie fails.

I’m sure a lot of you are reading this and immediately going, “sure sure sure… all those problems, but what about the action?” Well where there’s action it’s good. It’s everyday war movie action. The camera stays close the marines and at times can feel claustrophobic and shakes all over the place before cutting to a steadier camera that frames the entire action in scene and it’s good, but nothing that’s going to get the adrenaline going in your blood.

IMDB says N/A
Rotten Tomatoes says N/A
I say 5.0/10