MYST post #7: Battle Los Angeles

I watched Battle Los Angeles due to boredom and the fact that this movie was downloaded on my friends computer. As we were driving to southern Illinois, he pulled it up, which I hadn't seen in a few years. I barely remember the plot but all I remember that the action and digital effects were great. Looking at movie reviews on this movie really made me question watching it, and thus made me be very critical of watching it. It received a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes by the way... Ok so lets get into the plot and my critical review of the movie.

First, Battle Los Angeles to have a lot of plots holes and a lot of missing parts that should not have been missed. The movie starts as many other alien invasion movies such as Independence Day, because they both started happy go lucky before everything went crazy. Next a sergeant from another city, is introduced to help lead another platoon in practice missions. One of the members of the platoon had taken his presence to be hard to stand as the sergeant's leadership had killed his brother. This conflict was introduced to make more tension against one another in the movie. After some time, new casts on the television showed extra terrestrial beings approaching major cities. Of course, the characters had to seem that they did not know what was coming, but many hints were preparing the soldiers for the invasion of aliens. Once many deaths/chaos ensued, all platoons, including the sergeant's, were ordered to fight against the aliens. His platoon was ordered to find a bunch of civilians a few miles away. Unfortunately throughout the story many of the soldiers die and throughout the story, you grow more fond of the sergeant. As the platoon soon finds out, it is very difficult to kill the extra terrestrials, and the only way to kill them is shooting them in what seems to be their form of the heart. Also, all of the aliens are controlled by one, huge, mothership. This seems re-done... Oh wait. It is. Independence Day which was made 15 years prior to Battle Los Angeles. In both movies, if you destroy the mothership, you destroy all of the aliens. In the end though, a member of the platoon does take down the entire ship and humans, once again, regain power of the world. How original..
One scene that I want to take a deeper look at was when the platoon was on a helicopter, on their way to safety, and the sergeant volunteer's to try and kill the mothership. At first, none of the other members seem to want to slide down that rope, which seemed to be a death wish to stay back, but in the end, his entire platoon followed him down the rope to try and help save mankind. This was a big turning point in the relationship between the sergeant and it's members. Also it was a very spiritual and patriotic move that all of the platoon would literally risk their lives for their country.
The movie had very good visual effects, because of course they cannot emulate an alien without good digital help. They workers did a great job on this. Also, I liked the "far off" graphics of the mothership, crashing helicopters, and flying missiles. As always, I was trying to note any audio that would help the plot develop/increase tension; I did not notice any of this and I feel that the movie lacked a special part that could have increased my liking towards it. Finally, I feel that this movie is much too predictable and acting is, mediocre, at best. You're friend just died from an unknown alien, please react more than just staring at the body.
Overall, all this movie did for me was passed time on my 5 hour car ride. I did not really like the ending of the movie, which was so predictable. One thing I did like about the movie was the patriotism held throughout the entire movie, but that is barely it. I would only recommend this movie if you have not seen Independence Day, which did receive a much better score on Rotten Tomatoes than this. I give this movie 2.5/5 stars

MYST post #6: UP

UP is a classic in my book. I wanted to watch the movie with some friends on the way to a fishing trip to pass some time. I love this movie, it always touches a sweet spot in my heart. This movie has a great combination of all different kinds of genres to appeal to their target audience. In this case, children, but not in mine, I could watch it over and over. So, lets get into this, out of the ordinary Disney and Pixar movie.
The movie opens up with a child  exploring around and a voice is narrating what seems to be going on in his head as he runs around the neighborhood with his balloon. At first it seems like this movie may be like any other cartoon, Disney movie, an adventure of a young boy on his quest to explore his surroundings. But this is not the case as he meets his new best friend, Ellie, at an abandoned house. This is where all their fun begins. Ellie allows Carl, the young boy, to join her adventure club. One quite cliche aspect to note here is that as in most Disney movies, there are very few characters in this movie. But this works out perfectly in the end. So, as Ellie and Carl are shown growing up together, getting married, it makes the audience get attached to their relationship in just a few minutes. And then, the unexpected happens, one of the main characters dies, leaving Carl alone. After that scene, it shows Carl living alone, in his old house, in the middle of a growing metropolis. This scene shows Carl aggravated with the building company interrupting his used-to-be silence. This is the scene that I will go further in depth with. When Carl finally comes out of his house, filled with a bunch of locks, the audio of the movie is amplified. It increases the volume of all the building equipment and gives a close up of Carl's face, and how bothered he looks because of all the ruckus. Next, it shows his walking to his mailbox, which he made with Ellie. The mailbox appears to be covered in work dust. What happens next is probably a daily occurrence which shows Mr. Frederickson pulling a leaf blower out of nowhere to blow off all of the dust. Then he gets his mail and is approached by a friendly worker. The worker says that his boss wants to offer him to buy the house twice that of his last offer. Then Carl asks for the workers megaphone and yells at the boss, which is in an all black suit and sunglasses. This shows his superiority over the rest of his characters. This also shows the audience that he is a mean guy, which he is.
Finally, when Carl is having to be moved to "Shady Oaks" a retirement community for a mishap that he caused, he pulls of the extraordinary. His house lifts off into the sky from tons of balloons that he acquired from his job of selling balloons at the zoo. His next journey is to fulfill his lifelong dream of living next to paradise falls in South America. Trouble ensues as Russell, a boy scout accidentally went along with Carl. Now their real adventure begins as they encounter many problems to have to put his floating house next to the waterfall that he has been longing to do all of his life. He also does this to fulfill Ellie's dying wish. In the end, as all Disney movies do, Carl was able to bring his house, with the help of Russell, to the edge of paradise falls.

This movie is a must-see for people of all ages. Teaches kids and adults to be more tolerable of others. And shows a great story of what persevering though tough times can achieve.
 I have to give this movie a 4.5/5 stars.

 Love this movie!