Really, the last time we saw explosions that gratuitous was in 1996, when Will Smith showed the universe in Independence Day that America's raging boner was made out of nuclear fucking bombs, and that it would not hesitate to penetrate the suspiciously vaginal mothership of some goddamn space aliens. But where Independence Day was basically a buddy-cop flick co-starring Jeff Goldblum more or less as Jeff Goldblum, Battle: Los Angles has a little grit to it, a little breathless realism -- it's like the Saving Private Ryan of movies about aliens with a shitload of explosions in them. And that is exactly where Battle: Los Angeles one-ups Independence Day: It just has more.
Because here in America, folks, you don't win a war without blowing up a shitload of stuff. And if you don't end up winning the war? Well, at least you blew up a shitload of stuff.