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2 Stars

This SyFy/Asylum made for television movie takes its cues more from Independence Day and Skyline than Battle: Los Angeles. At first glance the special effects seem unlike any other Asylum effects, they’re good. But given time they wane and show just how cheap and rushed they truly are. This does add a lot of watchability, but at times pulls you out of the film, especially with the clearly fake two-dimensional explosions.

Mark Atkins’ direction is decent given the short shooting schedules for these types of movies. He may have delivered a well directed film, but the script, also by Atkins, leaves much to be desired. The cast does what it can with the choppy dialogue and cheesy military caricatures. Obviously written with available sets in-mind, the story takes a turn after the initial Skyline type attack and ID4 wanna-be dog fights, to a Terminator 4 post-apocalyptic run and gun.

The story feels like it was made up on the spot by a five year old. First Los Angeles is attacked in the present time, but it was also attacked in 1942 by aliens. Captain Pete Rodgers, played by Dylan Vox (who looks CGI, seriously, it’s weird), time travels to the present from the past attack. This develops further into him knowing a lot about the aliens, having trained to fight them. The squad of soldiers that he stumbles upon are given the orders of escorting Rodgers to some sector section area somewhere for unexplained reasons. The twist on all this in the end is ridiculous. If I’m slightly wrong on any of details here, it’s because the movie makes no attempt at laying anything out in an understandable fashion. Instead opting to cover up the fact that there is no real storyline by including gratuitous and obligatory (at this point) scenes and character archetypes from every other alien invasion film made in the past thirty years.

See it only if you’re bored, like bad movies or really into alien invasion flicks.

Director: Mark Atkins
Stars: Kel Mitchell, Nia Peeples, Dylan Vox, Gerald Webb