Those lights draw people like moths to a flame where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population.
I suppose such a big idea that doesn't have any A-List stars in it should have been clue number one that it's not any good. These aliens are attacking Los Angeles following a night of heavy partying in a posh L.A. condo. When Jarrod (Eric Balfour) is saved from the alien gaze that has resulted in everyone else in the city being abducted, we discover he is somehow changed, but initially, we don't know how. Jarrod and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) disagree on how to escape the alien attack. Jerrod and his best friend Terry (Donald Faison) believe that leaving the condo for a boat nearby is the best course of action, while she thinks they should stay put.
The first attempt they make to leave the condo by car ends up being a death
sentence for Terry, when they are attacked outside the parking garage and his
vehicle is crushed beneath the foot of mammoth alien walker.
It's hard to sympathize with the characters because even the script makes you
dislike most of them. Jarrod is somewhat at odds with Elaine because Terry
offers him a job in L.A. spawning a fight. Terry is cheating on his girlfriend
with his assistant and Terry's girlfriend seems to be a selfish snob.
So why care about any of them? Hard to say, really, but at least Elaine's
innocence and surprise pregnancy draws some sympathy for the situation.
At one point, the monstrous alien ship is attacked by what appears to be a jet
armed with a nuclear warhead. The tide appears to turn as it crashes to the
ground until it repairs itself and rises yet again. It also spawned smaller
attack ships and other vessels which fought the unmanned fighters buzzing about
the city.
No matter what success the military seemed to have, the aliens seemed to regenerate. There was no resolve to this, making the movie aimless. The fight never leaves the condo - they just end up running back and forth between apartments and the building next door trying to hide.
Even Jarrod and Elaine are eventually captured, but because Jarrod is somehow
different, he resists when his mind is transplanted into one of the stalker
drones controlled by the aliens. That is where the movie ends and you're pretty
much left wondering what just happened.
The Strause brothers provide exhilarating special effects to make this one
visually awesome. It just falls way short when it comes to the story.
2 Buckets
