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I spend most of my days sitting in a building where they filmed parts of 2007's Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. My window looks out on the streets where, in a half-hearted attempt to remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Kidman scurries away from people infected and controlled by an alien lifeform. It's a constant reminder of terrible invasion movies. For every Independence Day, there's an Invasion. For every Critters, there's a Critters 2 (or 3 or 4). For every The Day the Earth Stood Still, there's a The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The invasion genre is thick with winners and losers. It's been done so many times that it's hard to come up with some interesting or new twist that makes a movie stand out. I don't think any in recent history has stood out more than District 9. In that, the filmmakers did a superb job at making it feel real. They took the extraordinary and made it tangible. Accessible. Believable. I believe director Jonathan Liebesman has accomplished almost as much with Battle: Los Angeles.

Simple. Very simple. There's a global alien invasion. Call in the marines. It could have wandered off to the rest of the world, but Battle: LA's strength was that it stayed focus on a small group with a very small objective. Get to this location, and get the civilians to safety. By and large, that's the plot. They take momentary glances at the bigger picture ("scientists think they are here for the thing that they came here for"), but they don't get lost in the reasons. It's a glance, and you're back on the streets.

Aaron Eckhart (Core, The Dark Knight) plays U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Nantz. He finds himself with one last detail before his retirement. He's attached to Echo Company, 2nd battalion, 5th Marine regiment, offering support to the platoon's fresh Lieutenant, William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez). They are tasked with rescuing a stranded group of civilians before the Air Force bombs Los Angeles to halt the progress of the alien invaders... Wait. What? Alien invaders? Did you say alien invaders?

Yes. 

No one is really allowed to process what that means. I'm sure there are other people in the movie that we never meet, talking heads on TV, that are able to think about it's grander meaning. However, the Marines have orders. There is no time to sit back and think, "Wow, aliens are real and this is actually happening." There's a fight. There are enemies engaging you. You have your orders. Get the job done. Again, it's simple, and we're in the fight with them. The audience isn't allowed to process it or think about anything outside of the boundaries of what's on screen. It moves so quickly and is unrelenting.

Some of the emotion was trite. Ham-fisted. Overdone. The battle weary Nantz. The new Lt. with a baby on the way. We've seen this before in plenty of movies. We've probably seen it before in other invasion movies. Yet, they don't let it get in the way of the movie. It's there to let you access the characters. Their stories are delivered in shorthand. "Yes, OK. I know this guy. I've met him before." 

Battle: LA is a case where the style is almost as important, if not more so, than substance. The look and feel of the movie; it's pace and it's demeanor are really what makes it top shelf.

When credits rolled and the lights came up, I almost jumped out of my seat. I looked around to get affirmation. I wanted to see other people with a similar "Wow! What a ride!" looks on their faces. I didn't get the sense there was similar enthusiasm. 

Maybe I was alone in my thinking. Maybe I'm overselling it. Still, I thought Battle: LA was one helluva ride. It pinned you to your seat and if it did actually let you up for air, it was only for a second. If you stripped away the cartoonishness of ID4 and replaced it with the jarring reality from Blackhawk Down, you get Battle: LA. 

If I'm the only one that thinks it's just that good, it's cool. I'm one of few people that worship Hudson Hawk. I'm fine with that. Still, if you're in the mood for an intense time in the theater, give it a try. At a very minimum, it's worth the price of of admission; and, perhaps, you'd find, like me, that it's worth even more.

-Tom Rowe