Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Dir: Jonathan Liebesman

An alien invasion movie directed by the man that brought us the shambolic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning has got to be a load of old cobblers, right?
Wrong.
The plot: It's 5 months into the future, and mysterious meteors suddenly appear approaching Earth. Astronomers are baffled and bewildered, particularly when they determine that the meteors are due to strike the Earth just off the coastline of most major cities around the globe. The military are mobilised and are equally mystified when it is demonstrated that the meteors, rather than plunging into the ocean at terminal velocity, are actually slowing up right before they hit the water.
With defences set to high alert, the front line soldiers are torn asunder by ruthless alien adversaries emerging from the sea, the strikes simultaneous and strategically co-ordinated.
Quickly it becomes clear: The world is at war.
With the first wave decimated, we follow a unit of Marines with a two fold mission.
1: Shore up defences a couple of miles inland in Santa Monica.
2: Rescue the civilians holed-up in a West Los Angeles police station.
Outgunned, outmanned and quickly cut off from the rest of the defensive force, the question soon becomes not how many can they rescue, but how many of them will escape with their lives?
The director has been quoted as stating that he wanted to make a movie that was part Black Hawk Down, part alien invasion and, in every single regard, he succeeded.
The movie kicks straight into the action, and never really relents, save for the occasional mawkish interlude where we are reminded that 'soldiers have feelings too.'
The battle sequences are intense and relentless, perfectly crafted, the down at ground level directorial style plunging you right into the heat of warfare. In many ways, the movie reminded me of the First Person Shooter Kill Zone, the visceral nature of the carnage all absorbing.
There is the odd moment of chest thumping, Über-patriotic American guff, sure to annoy some European viewers, but it is tolerable and in keeping with the events on screen.
Pulse pumping, adrenaline fuelled and absolutely riveting form beginning to end, this is a straight tie here at Smell the Cult HQ for movie of the year with Black Swan.
Whilst critics will argue that it doesn't add anything particularly new story-wise to the genre, that would be radically missing the point. This is not about reinventing the wheel, rather about fine tuning it and, honestly, I don't think there is a movie quite like this out there, Cloverfield and Skyline notwithstanding.
For alien invasion movies, the bar has undeniably just been raised.
Outstanding.

5 out of 5

Skyline (2010) Dir: Colin Strause, Greg Strause

Getting some pretty rough reviews this one, unfairly in my humble one.
The plot: A small group of people are sleeping off a party in a swanky L.A. penthouse, when strange lights beam down from the sky. Anyone who looks at the light becomes transfixed, and can't resist the urge to walk towards it. As their faces alter and eyes transform suddenly they are sucked into the light.
The following day, a fresh menace, as huge spacecraft descend from the heavens, again beaming the strange light, but this time we see thousands of people sucked up through the beam of light into the belly of the beast. What's more, smaller craft break off from the motherships, in search of any humans that may have escaped their light beam and, down on the ground, gigantic monsters roam.
Schlocky, cliched and utterly ridiculous?
Why yes indeed, but it is also riotously entertaining and manages to be pretty damn tense in places too.
Apparently, this was shot for the paltry sum of $10 million, lose change for most sci-fi special effects movies but, for the most part, you really can't see much difference. Sure, the odd bit of overlay looks a bit ropey, but it certainly does nothing to detract from the spectacle.
Managing to be both epic and looming in terms of the visuals, story wise this is stripped right down as, for much of the movie, it is not clear if the rest of the planet is affected, or just the one city, the focus instead on the travails of Our Heroes.
Certainly flawed, certainly a mish-mash of dozens of other movies we've seen before, and they blow it big time in the last five minutes, yet this is still an engagingly enjoyable sci-fi actioner.