3.11.11 - Battles and Quakes

Hey, I have no idea whether or not this will work on BTS. I mean, this is not the only post on the Battle: LA subject...

Oh well.

The flick itself was very, very reminiscent of ID4, in that you have some US Marines going up against the bad aliens. I am left wondering whether the Corps doesn't use these movies, at least indirectly, as a recruiting tool.

In the end, the hero Marines save the day... hoorah and please sign on the dotted line.

On a more personal level, we caught this one at the noon-ish matinee on 3.11 just a few hours into some of the most emotionally devastating scenes coming out of Japan. The stuff coming in from the earthquake and tsunami were similar to what we saw in The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. So, by the time you get you mind wrapped around the fact that what you were seeing was really real, if then you dive into a movie that begins on a coastline and involves mass devastation... you can find your subconscious trying to sort it all out before packing it off to your emotions center which is in crisis mode.

The aliens were too primitive from my perspective. You don't fly halfway across the universe to invade a planet if you are still using C&C centers as big as battleships that conveniently bury themselves in the middle of a combat situation where wandering squads of enemy fighters can defeat it with laser guidance devices from the 1980s, small arms and a few hand grenades.

TRUTH: Our drones in Afghanistan are piloted from a very safe, very respectable distance. You can kill the drone but the pilot will be flying a new one withing a few minutes.

But strictly as entertainment... it worked well and I will probably own the DVD for my library... giving it a spot on the same shelf as those aforementioned flicks, ID4, Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and of course... War of the Worlds.

reply to post by redoubt


I went to the 11:10 Batlle: LA the morning "of" the quake. I found myself having very very similiar feelings and thoughts while watching the movie. Hard to explain, It Really was an at the moment type of feeling. Makes me curious if most people were having these ideas or just the ones who care to stop and think about it....Interesting no matter what.

The flick itself was very, very reminiscent of ID4, in that you have some US Marines going up against the bad aliens. I am left wondering whether the Corps doesn't use these movies, at least indirectly, as a recruiting tool.

Of course they do. Why do you think they so readily provide stock footage, allow access to bases for filming, etc.? Look at the end of such movies, in the credits, and you'll usually see thanks go out to different military services and locations, etc.