Free Republic

This weekend, American soldiers have once again stepped into harm’s way, as Operation Odyssey Dawn begins in Libya. Coincidentally, we’re also passing through a pop-culture moment of some significance, as a sizable portion of our cultural elite find themselves strongly at odds with audiences over an unexpectedly popular movie, Battle: Los Angeles. Pop-culture criticism can be a tricky affair. Critics often praise a film that audiences ignore, or vice versa. What’s interesting in this case is how profound the disconnect has become. Battle: LA passed the $60 million mark at the box office this weekend, but many critics don’t just...

Let me put it this way: “Battle: Los Angeles” is the most subversive film to come out of Hollywood since “300.” It’s also not partisan or political in any way. We are watching a brutal alien invasion of Los Angeles from the point of view of a platoon of United States Marines — men who love their country, each other, and stand for the finest traditions and values America and our military has to offer. Director Jonathan Liebesman honors these men and writer Christopher Bertolini is true to them. Better still, this is an absolutely terrific action film. The story...

Battle: Los Angeles is one of those movies and geeks and nerds have dreamed about their entire lives. What would it be like if an alien force came to earth, was openly hostile, and the war began? How would we fight? This is a war movie, in the truest sense. Its closest Hollywood analogue would have to be Black Hawk Down...which says a lot about this current film. This is not Will Smith in Independence Day, happily flying around killing bad aliens. This is war, in it grittiest Hollywood iteration.