Battle: Los Angeles (2011) — "That was some real John Wayne shit, staff sergeant."

Some sci-fi films vanish from the conversation almost as soon as they leave theaters, and Battle: Los Angeles is one of them. Jonathan Liebesman's 2011 film drops Aaron Eckhart's Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz and a Marine platoon, including Michelle Rodriguez's Technical Sergeant Elena Santos, into an alien invasion of Los Angeles, toeing the line between war movie and creature feature. In doing so, it does something few films since have managed: build a novel and compelling world for an alien invasion to unfold in. We talk war, aliens, and what happens when the two are combined.

Dr. David D...