Battle: Los Angeles and Jóhann Jóhannsson

If you’re a fan of alien invasion/visitation movies, then my guess is that you’re a pretty happy camper right now. Quite a few films in the genre have appeared in the box office recently, with a slew of others coming in the next couple of years. I’ve become a little bored with the genre myself: it feels dominated by films that are little more than thinly veiled excuses to show lots of shit getting blown up.

But then I watched this trailer for Battle: Los Angeles, and I have to say… if you want to score some bonus points for your film from me, an easy way is to employ a song by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. The song in question — “The Sun’s Gone Dim And The Sky’s Turned Black” — is the final track from Jóhannsson’s IBM 1401, A User’s Manual, and it adds a elegiac, solemn quality to the footage of shit getting blown up that I find rather affecting.

Battle: Los Angeles arrives in theatres on March 11, 2011.