Well done. Maybe Stephen Hawking was right, shoot first ask questions later ...just jokin. This felt authentic, of course you ask how can an invasion from aliens feel authentic. It was in the visuals largely where the quality of this film comes from. Great panoramic computer generated scenes from the sky of battlegrounds, interesting machinery and there are alot of both, then the focus comes down to earth and engages the unit to where you as the audience are vicariously given a boots on the ground perspective as if you were ...in there. The makers of ths film also covered that you empathized with the characters fates by developing them early and throughout. This film sounded great too. If you like explosions and gunfire any DTS theater sound systems woofers will shake it. I don't particularly prefer gunfire and explosions but this was visceral and had my nervous system on edge non stop. I and you realize any extra terrestrial intelligence that had the technology to get here from anywhere further than the dark side of the moon would have the technology to kick our asses up and down Earth. Aside from that little inconvenience the film was, for its genre, well done.
Read where LA producers are suing Skyline since some of the techies jumped over to there and allegedly stole some techie tech.
Wow, my take is completely different. Alien/sci-fi films should be filled with the unexpected because simply put, everything about an Alien is unexpected. The storyline was completely predictable as we knew what was around every corner. Nothing stood out. Unfortunate because the premise was great, but fell flat. IMO you have to personalize the invaders somewhat. Example: ID4 and Alien series... we got to know these creatures pretty well. And to me, those two can't even compare to District 9 in depth. Anyways, the effects were pretty good.
I get what you're saying here it was a really in the moment film, seat of the pants kinda action. Not cerebral in the least. Getting to know the creatures was maybe intentional since the empathy was all about the unit here. I know you're way more into the genre than me since I recall you mentioning some game that I"m not into. This film probably resembled a shooter game in the sense of the aforementioned descriptions. I'll agree not much in this genre can hold a candle to those two films since they're at the top historically.
To a point I see where you are coming from, and BattleLA seems more like a "UUUUURRRAAAAAHHH" join the US military and fight for the motherland film (like propaganda to fight in a "Globalist" campaign against aliens). In the end, it worked for me since the aliens were not too weird and the special effects ROCKED! The overall acting in the film worked for me too.....SKYLINE the acting was horrid at best.
On Syfy last night: Battle of Los Angeles It was free, no sticky floors, and no cell phones going off.