homepage Forums SimHQ Community Outer Space & Science Fiction battle: Los Angeles...barely any marketing for opening next weekend???

Hehe, irrespective of the horrible reviews, the movie still made 36 million on opening weekend which was half of its production budget.

Then there was another sci-fi film "Mars Needs Moms" which completely tanked this weekend. Production budget of 150 million and it only made 6.8 million. It also didn't get nearly as bad reviews as Battle: Los Angeles.

Looking at RT the film BLA is getting poor reviews across the board but more positive, but not great, reviews from fans.
31% by reviews
71% from users

And the reported $70,000,000.00 film (does it look like a 7 mil film?) made some money at the box office making $36,000,000.00 over the weekend.

Oh, and Fox news (the only news worth watching!!) said that the special effects were done by the same people who made the film Skyline. Then they went on to report IIHTC that the Skyline was done at the same time as BLA and without the knowledge of the BLA people.

I went to see it yesterday with friends and we all actually enjoyed it... full house at the theatre, everyone clapped at the end. Despite what the critics may have said about this movie and have as such given it a poor rating I must say the film turned out to be much better than I expected. The action scenes are pretty well done. Much better than the past few alien invasion movies (War of the worlds, Day the earth stood still, Skyline) I recommend it if you're in the mood for a good action popcorn flick. Either you like these type of movies or you don�t. Plus it was fun watching my neighborhood transformed into carnage.

-Rick

Well considering RT also has Transformers 2 getting 20% from reviewers and 76% from viewers I think we can establish that cinemaphiles they are not.

Like I said - if they'd struck to their strongest point (action) I'd have been happy. I mean I enjoy alien action films! It's when the action stopped and the cliched dialogue started (beyond "We need to go five clicks North") that it was painfully terrible. And that there was so much of it.. oh god.

No kidding.. these are real quotes:
"I'd rather be in Afghanistan"

"I need you to be brave. I need you to be my little Marine."

There has always been a significant disconnect between how critics perceive films and how the general public perceives them. As a general rule, critics tend to eschew low brow action films while the general public likes them and critics tend to praise the art house and dialogue heavy films that most in the general public would be bored with.

Haha no kidding eh?

Are you talking about "Battle of Los Angeles" which is the SyFy knock off of Battle: Los Angeles meant to capitalize on the theatrical release of the latter? I saw a few minutes of it and quickly changed the channel after seeing how absolutely horrid it was.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1758570/

I did about the same - saw about 3 minutes of it and couldn't stand it anymore. If anyone ever wanted to interrogate me, making me watch that would have me spilling the beans in no time. I'm not sure I have emotionally recovered from it yet.

I am seeing it on Tuesday or Wednesday. It was the #1 movie this weekend (of course) and looks like it will make over $100 million domestically during its run.

This is the closest to what I feel (warning spoilers):

Apart from a few good combat sequences, this movie blew. Totally. Laughably so.

I figured as much. I might watch it on cable in the future if I have a dull Saturday or Sunday night with nothing to do.

Guess that's what happens with an emerging generation of filmmakers weaned on videogames like CoD and not on actual films as their storytelling medium when they were growing up. Goodbye story and character!

I wasn't crazy about D9 either... I cold have waited for the DVD on that one.. it was still better than Skyline though..



The thing that disappointed me the most about Skyline was the ending.. the premise was good... but at the end I was like... Is that it.. I was waitng for the next scene and the credits rolled.. At least D9 had some kind of premise to it... there was a story..

I saw BLA on opening day.. my son and I went.. it was his 14th birthday.. It was ok.. just ok.. had some holes.. lost of holes.. another one that could have waited for the DVD... I am getting kind of leary about Sci Fi films.. the last 3 I went to see.. all left me wishing I had waited for the DVD..

IMO it didn't. How did it blow? I'm no fanboi, just wondered how you came to that conclusion?

The dialogue and the characters-- they were wretchedly written. I mean, scenes that should have had impact or packed a punch either fell flat or made me and my GF burst of laughing (like the scene where the lead and another soldier are reviewing the tactical map and learn of the kid's dad dying- everything stops, and they look up in grave shock as if that guy was the prime package and the point of the entire mission, and then the "I need you to be my little marine" speech...hahaha. Not to mention the painfully bad writing we are subjected to when we learn of the staff sergeant's back story in the beginning, when he's submitting his request for discharge. And then there's the horribly cliched way he earns the respect of the soldier whose brother had died under his command. I mean, I could go on and on.). There was really no one to care about in the film b/c they were so stock. So that's a huge ding against the movie right there. Some of the combat was cool to watch, so I do give it that. But as a story, with characters worth caring about, total fail.

I think this is partially the product of a director (and/or generation of directors) who think more in terms of videogames than movies or books. In other words, some cool visuals, but incredibly shallow and almost dispensing with story. Battlefield 2 or Modern Warfare gets them excited, not Shakespeare, Elmore Leonard, Wild Bunch, Kurosawa, Philip K. Dick, Asimov, etc. etc. I'd much rather watch a movie where the effects and action are in support of a great story and interesting characters (who aren't cookie cutter) (movies like serenity, district 9, alien, blade runner) than vice versa (pretty much 95% of action and scifi films). Or, in rare cases, a movie where the effects are so amazing (avatar) that the stupidity of the story is almost irrelevant.

Battle for LA was a stupid movie, by a stupid director and writer (at least from the POV of creating a story worth telling and characters worth knowing), for a generation they perceive as apparently too stupid to know better. Maybe for the most part, they are right?

I guess what this really all boils down to is the fact that some people dont really care for story or characters and are just satisfied with seeing action scenes and lots of explosions. Does anyone remember Mission Impossible 2?

I'm not placing a value judgement on that at all. Just making an observation!

I like all kinds of films from leave your brain-at-home action ones to high-brow art films and all in-between and you have to go to watch a film knowing what to expect and this was a fun, sci-fi, action film - nothing more. You can't heap your expectations onto a film and then begrudge it for not living up to them.

Fully agree! You shouldn't go to see Battle: Los Angeles with the notion that it will have a screenplay and characters on the same level of quality as "The King's Speech".

Exactly lol