10 Bad Movies With Great Trailers

5. Battle: Los Angeles

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Columbia Pictures

Sci-fi action movies are ten-a-penny, but for a while it looked as if Battle: Los Angeles was going to put a fresh spin on the genre.

Instead of focusing on the fate of the entire planet and constantly cutting to senior members of government gazing into the middle distance and saying 'Oh... my... god.', Battle: LA looked set to deliver a down-and-dirty boots on the ground war movie that just happened to be about an alien invasion.

The two and a half minute teaser trailer contained more dramatic tension and excitement than the entire 116 minutes of the movie, with director Jonathan Liebsman deciding on following the tired 'hoo-rah!' tropes of countless other similarly-themed movies instead of trying to do something original with what was an interesting hook.

Despite earning a solid $211.8m at the box office, Battle: Los Angeles fared poorly with critics, and no wonder; the uninspired action, cliche-riddled script and migraine-inducing camerawork came across as something Michael Bay could film on an iPhone in his garden hungover with one hand tied behind his back.

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