Battle: Los Angeles trailer

[Metahive]

Not all that much new fodder for speculation, save the "we can't let Los Angeles fall" line at the end. I'm going forward and say that this is because they're developing the gimmick there that will allow humanity to defeat the aliens in one epic battle the end. I really hope the movie will prove me wrong because that would be lame as shit and just yet another retread of WotW/Independence Day.

[Commander 598]

Given that the plot is:
Spoiler

Marines evacing as many civilians from the city as possible before they (AF?) bomb the shit out of it somehow.

I find the possibility of a deus ex machina highly unlikely. "We can't Los Angeles fall" because it appears to be the main West US Coast beachhead, a situation that may be repeated or fail miserably in what appear to be a dozen other locations. It goes well with the modern war movie theme they've got going.

[Metahive]

I find it quite bothersome to think that aliens capable of casual interstellar flight have to even make use of beachheads on the ground. They already got the ultimate untouchable beachhead, Earth's orbit. From there can attack anywhere they want anytime they want and mankind can't do shit against it, capturing individual cities shouldn't be of high importance for them, unless there's something specific they want to have in there. If it's really just the water they want and they have about the same moral values as the average anti-Na'vi milwanker they should just rain death and destruction down upon humanity until we give up and hand the planet over.
Maybe those aliens are somewhat moral for a change?

[spartasman]

maybe it will turn out to be some sort of environmental thing "We can't use this planets water while the primitive inhabitants keep polluting it", so they decide to deal with us before taking our water.

[Metahive]

Yeah, maybe humanity goes the Paul Atreides route and threatens to poison all oceans in case the aliens don't fuck off and Los Angeles is the site of a major poison deposit or something. That would explain why they attempt a cumbersome land invasion instead of just blowing the whole place up, they can't risk the poison from being released.

[Stark]

If you think that's actually 'better', you're a fucking moron. Yeah, travelling interstellar differences and using a land invasion is stupid, but travelling interstellar distances and NOT KNOWING HOW TO BOIL WATER is totally hard-scifi milwank approved.

[Metahive]

If they even knew that much about water they wouldn't come all the way to Earth to fetch it in the first place and if its's Lebensraum they're after then they're SOL, so kindly fuck off.

[loomer]

It could simply be that they don't have the resources available to change their initial beachhead target to somewhere less difficult to take without putting the entire operation at risk (in which case, the boysquids in Alien Military Intelligence really screwed up)

[Stark]

If they even knew that much about water they wouldn't come all the way to Earth to fetch it in the first place and if its's Lebensraum they're after then they're SOL, so kindly fuck off.

So ... do you think your suggestion is 'better' or not? 'Know that much about water'? Are you for real? They're invading a whole planet for it and you think they don't know how to work with it?

[Metahive]

If they knew water had different aggregates they'd harvest it from any of the non-populated places in the solar system where it's abundantly available as ice, there would be no need for them to invade Earth which has all those warlike apes on it for it. Hey, it's no different from the ID4 aliens invading Earth for its natural resources although they could have taken them from any other planet in the solar system as well.
Also, concession accepted on the Lebensraum front.

If you don't have anything besides lame snark to offer about speculations concerning silly plots for a potentially very silly summer blockbuster, then rather go and fuck your dead ancestors. They'll surely don't mind the company of yet another person with fossilized ganglia. Flame war over.

[Commander 598]

It could simply be that they don't have the resources available to change their initial beachhead target to somewhere less difficult to take without putting the entire operation at risk (in which case, the boysquids in Alien Military Intelligence really screwed up)

They appear to deploy most of their troops via drop pod and so far I haven't seen anything big enormous enough to move a shit ton of people and equipment in a hurry. So far we've seen some craft about as a big as a large airplane that may not even be transports.

[Marcus Aurelius]

If you don't have anything besides lame snark to offer about speculations concerning silly plots for a potentially very silly summer blockbuster, then rather go and fuck your dead ancestors. They'll surely don't mind the company of yet another person with fossilized ganglia. Flame war over.

You're still not getting it. What Stark and other have been trying to say is that in order to make a interesting movie, the humans must have a way to win. Realistically there is nothing on Earth FTL capable aliens would actually need so bad that they have to control the whole planet, but take it intact so that they can't use orbital bombardment.

Therefore, silly plot is almost mandatory for this type of movie. You should just forget about it and enjoy the show. If the movie is hilarious enough like Independence Day, you can always watch it for laughs. If they make it serious, you can always try to identify with one of the main characters and if the movie is well made get some entertainment out of that. Perhaps they can even avoid deus ex machina some way. If they manage that, they get a extra points from me for trying.

[adam_grif]

Has anybody considered that perhaps they wish to conquer the planet, but have an ethical obligation to minimize civilian casualties and not use orbital bombardment? Because they don't mind hitting military targets but they aren't complete monsters?

[weemadando]

What about a scenario where they're the interstellar equivalent of early archaeologists? Going around fucking up and over natives to steal bits and bobs to sell back to museums and collectors.

"It's a human piece that they called Mt Rushmore, quite a bold design of their first four-headed god-president on a granite medium. We start the bidding at twelve-ty squillion."

[Satori]

Has anybody considered that perhaps they wish to conquer the planet, but have an ethical obligation to minimize civilian casualties and not use orbital bombardment? Because they don't mind hitting military targets but they aren't complete monsters?

Then why are they dropping on the beaches of LA rather than on military installations?

The only idea I can think of is basically the opposite. These aliens are actually piss poor renegades who's highly desperate plan is to gain control of major population centers and extort payment from indigenous governments. Basically space terrorists, who don't even have the gear or funds to properly conquer even a relatively primitive planet like earth. They're using the alien equivalent of left over AK-47s from the cold war, and mothballed WWII artillery that fell off the back of an alien space truck.

[loomer]

I still want to see an alien invasion that's coming to save us from Hitler, or Stalin, or Kennedy, personally. It'd have to be a comedy though.

[Metahive]

You're still not getting it. What Stark and other have been trying to say is that in order to make a interesting movie, the humans must have a way to win. Realistically there is nothing on Earth FTL capable aliens would actually need so bad that they have to control the whole planet, but take it intact so that they can't use orbital bombardment.

Trouble to follow the conversation much?

Me: "Maybe they're storing something to poison the oceans in LA to make them worthless to the aliens!"
Stark: "Posioning water is stupid, they could cook it out! You're stupid for saying they don't know that much about water SNARK SNARK HURFF HURFF"
Me: "If they knew about aggregates they wouldn't come here to Earth to retrieve it but get it from elsewhere! If they want to live in the Oceans, they also can't simply cook it out!"
You: "You're still not getting it. What Stark and other have been trying to say is that in order to make a interesting movie, the humans must have a way to win. Realistically there is nothing on Earth FTL capable aliens would actually need so bad that they have to control the whole planet, but take it intact so that they can't use orbital bombardment."

Epic fail.

[Srelex]

Bumping this because of a new and more interesting trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd-d7T_OfdU

[Stofsk]

It looks boss.

[weemadando]

Thanks - was going to post that.

Now with added context (invasion from the sea) I think its likely that the smoke rings are in fact DPICM arty rounds being dropped in to deny the beachheads. Which combined with some of the other footage seems to.indicate a half intelligent military and a production crew who have a clue/listened to consultants.

[CaptainChewbacca]

It looks like they filmed on base at Pendleton, and with some decent hardware, which indicates a close association with the military in the production.

[RecklessPrudence]

Hell. Yes.

That is all.

[hongi]

We're going to be butt-raped!

[Anguirus]

Wonder when Michelle Rodriguez dies.

[TC27]

If you cant find a plausable reason for an alien ground invasion then my default option is that the aliens are into some kind of ritualistic warfare/bloodsport and don just use orbital bombardment/robots/radiation because they would find it boring.