I saw Battle: Los Angeles on Tuesday night, and once again, like we've seen time and time before, aliens, unprovoked, invade and attack the people of Earth. Now, over the course of the film, characters hypothesize some possible explanations for the aggression, but nothing 100 percent concrete. I'm sorry, but when I watch any movie that depicts war, I would like to know where exactly this hostility is coming from. While viewing, however, I think I may have come up with a reason why Earth is subject to such extraterrestrial vitriol.
[NOTE: Chances are you haven't seen Battle: Los Angeles, and that's fine; I don't plan to spoil anything. Just know, as the marketing has already made clear, that aliens attack early in the film with no explanation and they're very angry.]
Let's take a look at this from the aliens' perspective. For all we know, this or any other fictional alien force is, at heart, a peaceful group. Think, "The People of Alderaan." But have you ever heard about how our TV signals are broadcast into space? Thus signals broadcast at the dawn of the television age in the 1920s can theoretically be received by beings 80 or more light years away. Some of these first transmissions received would be dancing sock puppets or early shows like Truth or Consequences or perhaps even some sort of sporting event. The aliens could not help but grow fond of humans and even develop a distant yet protective relationship with our culture and us. Their admiration even goes so far that it becomes a popular form of entertainment on this alien world to watch broadcasts from Earth -- alien drinking games are even formed based on vaudevillian pratfalls.
So why the change of heart? Why are these aliens now attacking Earth? It may appear like it makes no sense whatsoever, but bear with me -- again, you have to put yourself in the mindset of the aliens. Imagine coming home from alien work and sitting down on your alien couch. Like most aliens, you decide to watch whatever broadcast from Earth is finally reaching your receiver. Only this time, the aliens are finally receiving the transmissions from... Nazi Germany.
You see, the aliens don't hate the general Earthling population at all! Their offensives are a direct, immediate reaction to Nazi TV broadcasts of the '30s and '40s -- the byproduct of their collective outcry, "Hey, we have to do something!" So when the aliens finally reach Earth as they do at the beginning of Battle: Los Angeles, the aliens, in their minds, aren't mowing down innocent humans with their lasers -- they're mowing down Nazis. Aliens are the good guys! Or at least they think they're the good guys.
To be fair, there's some selfishness fueling their attack: Sure, they want to liberate the humans from the Nazi oppressors, but there's also a realization that if they don't mount an offensive, for all they know, Hitler might attack them next. So, really, when aliens invade, it's all one big mix-up. If we somehow knew that they thought we were a world of Nazis, we could screen for them old newsreels about the Nazis' defeat, or perhaps even show them an example of a current television broadcast, like Castle. Of course, the aliens aren't stupid; that kind of explanation is exactly what a Nazi would say to an alien in an effort to fool it. If I'm the alien, I shoot first and ask questions later. They've seen the footage! Who can blame them?
So listen: When you fork over your hard-earned money this weekend to see Battle: Los Angeles, keep in mind, aliens -- no matter how random and senseless their attack may be -- have motivations that aren't always rooted in evil. And if you view the aliens as a force of liberators trying to rid our world of Nazi overlords (and, eventually, Castle), then the whole thing just might make a lot more sense. And sure -- a lot more enjoyable.
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