Alien invasion season is officially underway, with the release today of “Skyline,” the first of a string of similarly-themed sci-fi pictures set to roll out over the next few years, from “Super 8” to “Battleship.” To no one’s great surprise, it turns out to be no good at all (seriously, it was a film starring Eric Balfour. What were you expecting? ERIC BALFOUR!), but a trailer’s debuted at Apple for a film that, at one stage, was suing “Skyline” for suspicious similarities in its set-up and design.
The site has the first full trailer for Sony’s sci-fi picture “Battle: Los Angeles,” which stars Aaron Eckhart as the leader of a Marine platoon trying to make it across a battle-ravaged LA in the midst of a global alien invasion. The cast also includes Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Michael Pena, Lucas Till (“X-Men: First Class“), Ramon Rodriguez (“Transformers 2“) and rapper Ne-Yo, and it’s helmed by Jonathan Liebesman (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning“), who landed the chair on Warner’s sequel to “Clash of the Titans” on the strength of his work here, and was even considered to direct “Superman.”
In a lot of ways, there’s little surprising here — an over-reliance on the rapidly-getting-old found-footage trope, a complete lack of dialogue, and a distinct whiff of a sci-fi level pack for “Call of Duty.” But at the same time, we were pleasantly surprised by the clip — it’s, at the very least, an extremely well cut trailer (we’re not sure if the music is from the score or not, but it works like gangbusters), and there’s some genuinely spectacular footage.
We’re by no means sold yet, but we’ll certainly be keeping an eye out. The film hits theaters four months from now, on March 11th, 2011. Watch the trailer below, or head over to Apple for the HD version.
