ANCA OPTION 2: ATTEND A POPULAR EVENT

The popular event I attended was watching Battle Los Angeles at the movie theaters. Right from the start of the movie you could notice how power was used in this film because of the way the marines were sent out to battle in a seconds notice and had no choice but to face this unknown enemy even if they were not fully trained. Then authority took place when the captain of one of the marine platoons was put into second command by a sergeant who was way younger than the caption and had less experience but basically had a better education to get a higher rank. When it came to ethnicity and race it was pretty wide spread because the platoon that the film concentrated on had a good mixture of races and personalities while same did anyone who should authority or was in command. No certain race was downgraded or had less authority than others. The film was a good example of an action packed thriller and though it was fiction it tried to be as realistic as possible because it seemed like it was trying to show how the United States would react to an alien invasion.

Battle Los Angeles also had the good guy and bad guy roles with the marines of course being the good guys and the aliens being the villains. The film used ethno mimesis by mimicking comic books and stories that build a plot on the aliens wanting to invade earth to take our water sources because they need it to survive. I noticed that Vladimir prop’s theory was used in the film. The heroes were the group of marines that stood against the alien invasion and the villains were the aliens who were trying to conquer earth to take its water supplies. Then the donor was the few civilians that the heroes had met up with during the mission and had helped them with carrying wounded and fighting the aliens. The dispatcher was one of the head army sergeants who had sent the heroes on their mission. The false hero would have to be the young sergeant who had less experiences than the captain and wasn’t able to lead the group of marines once battle came into play and the helper was the air force who lend a hand with transporting and dropping supplies. The civilians were also the princess because they were protected by the heroes and lead to safety. During the preparation sequence each marine goes home to their families to let them know that they will be going into the battlefield soon because there higher authority has imposed them to enter combat. Then the villain or aliens make their first arrival at a Los Angeles beach where they kill anything that moves. This is also where the United States intelligence learns that the villain is here to take their water supplies but by doing so they will also eliminate its inhabitants. Then during the complication sequence the marines encounter the aliens for the first time and a few of them are injured from the villains attack. The heroes realize they lack strength and intelligence but if they stick together and work as a team they could have the element of surprise. The heroes are also acquired with a new task when they learn that they can have a better chance of defeating the villain if they take out its air support. In the transference sequence the heroes are companied by s few cops and a member of the air force whose plane had crashed. The marines learn that the aliens’ chest is its weakness because one of the civilians was a doctor who had made tests on a wounded alien. The heroes and villains engage in combat once again where this time one of the donors had sacrificed themselves in order to protect one of the heroes. The rest of the donors are than picked up by a transport helicopter and the heroes head to the main location of their mission. Then the struggle sequence begins where the heroes and the villains clash for the last time. The heroes are wounded but are still able to destroy the main alien ship that keeps their air support running. Afterwards the return sequence comes into play where the marines arrive back at their headquarters and are given the option to stay and rest or go back into the warzone in another area that is being assaulted. Finally during the recognition sequence the heroes are recognized for their bravery and choose to go back into battle immediately.

I could tell that this movie seemed to support the Marine core and tried to persuade viewers to join. I know after watching the movie it made me think about the Marine core a little bit even though I ended up telling myself it’s not for me. I felt like subliminal messaging was definitely used in this film because they mentioned how brave it takes to be a marine and it seemed like the film was trying to show us how cool it is to be a marine. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had paid the makers of this film to add these lines that had nothing to do with the movie but endorse the marine core.

The more I had started to watch the movie the more I began to realize how much this film was like one that I had seen a few months before called skyline. These movies are very alike because their plots are both about aliens attacking Los Angeles. When I compared these alien films to the ones back in the 70s and 80s I noticed just how similar they are because no matter what they always seem to have the same plot. It seems like the only thing that is different between older alien films and the ones that are produced nowadays are that the aliens seem to look more advanced each year when one comes out and of course better specially effects. I think that alien flicks have not changed much over the years because it’s kind of like the selective perception theory where when we think of a movie that has to do with aliens we tend to think of extra-terrestrials that are invading our earth for something. Film makers know what we want to see and what we expect when it comes to space invader films and I think that’s the main reason why so many of these types of films are created every year because they are so simply to create and they never seem to get old in our society.