Battle Los Angeles (2011)

I wanted to see this being the trailers looked amazing
it just gave enough away to make you interested.
Now I have to say that this movie does deliver on the wow effect.
I would have to say that is is a worth follow up to ID4.
I think it could be an actual sequel to ID4 if it wanted to be.
Being that the aliens in that were amassing for a
ground assault and I always heard that any Sequel
to ID4 would feature a ground assault.

Anyway this movie I would have to say was better then
Skyline which came out last year. Even though they are
similar Battle Los Angeles had a better story, a better
build up to the alien attack and I felt the story for
Battle Los Angeles was more fleshed out and
had more detail also Battle Los Angeles had one thing that Skyline didn't
and that was an Explanation.

They actually gave reasons for the alines being on Earth they didn't just
show up and start tearing up the place. True you an argue Skyline was
from the "Average Joe" perspective and Battle Los Angeles is not.
But still they could have thrown in some reason.
I just felt Battle Los Angeles left no lingering question and it
actually has a conclusion unlike Skyline which just stopped.
But as for Battle Los Angeles the music was fitting the action was
explosive (pun intended) The acting was impressive especially
from Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez.
The film even had moments of great drama and a slight bit of humor
in the beginning.
The visual effects were impressive and I also like the production
design, The creatures do remind me of the ones from ID4 and their
technology seems even Terminatorish but that is ok.
I thought as a whole the film itself was very good and I did
enjoy it greatly. I felt the camera work was very raw at times and
put you right in the action.
This movie is truely a edge of your seat thrill ride that I was
very happy to take a trip on.

Skyline (2010)

Well there isn't much to be said about this one. I went to see it basically becasue the trailers looked cool. It is basically across between ID4, the remake of War of the worlds (staring Tom Cruse ) and has a little pinch of Cloverfeild and a pinch of District 9 to round it out. your basic plot is as follows:

"Jarrod and his pregnant girlfriend Elaine travel to Los Angeles to meet his old friend and successful entrepreneur Terryand his wife Candice. After a night of partying the group is woken up by strange lights descend on the city of Los Angeles, drawing people outside like moths to a flame where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth and this group must survive an alien invasion that they seemingly are thrust into."

As for the movie itself there isn't much explanation I think that was done for a reason also the same reason the movie just ended the way it did by just stopping at one point I think that this is being set up as a possible series and the actual back story will be explained in up coming films. Because the way I see it the aliens aren't just going to drop out of the sky for no reason and start tearing the place up, they want something and it will probably be reviled later on. Will Smith said it best " Look, I really don't think they flew 90 billion light years to come down here and start a fight. Get all rowdy. "

Speaking of Aliens the creature designs and ships were very impressive, imaginative and interesting . The effects as well as the action was very well done , At one point I thought the aliens were kinda stupid having not shielding on their ships and were easily taken down but these ones proved they do have some tricks of their own .
There were some nice shots and cinematography it was a bit light on story but like I said I think its the first chapter of something bigger. Also it wasn't long as long in run time as I thought it did feel longer .
I also was thinking about the alien powers wouldn't a very dark or mirrored glass/lends protect you from their "weapon"
Also I kind of understand the thing with the brains but would like to know more about the creatures anyway. This is a interesting film with nice action and good visuals I would like to see how the story unfolds.

Follow up:
While getting this post ready to put up I was on IMDb and yes this is a listing for Skyline 2
apparently it is listed for release in 2012.