What’s really started to frustrate me is the increased number of DVD’s that are hitting the shelves with similiar titles to iminent new and big budget blockbusters. Only yesterday I saw what I thought was the latest blockbuster hit the shelves in Sainsbury’s called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, I remembered it because I had previously seen the previews/movie trailers hit the TV and on the Apple movie trailer section of their site. So I knew that it was advertised for the cinema and that time may have passed so potentially being release on DVD at some point; so I thought! So although I was surprised that it hit the shelves so quickly which isn’t unusual these days, I decided to purchase it.

That evening I had settled down for the evening and put the DVD on, really looking forward to the film. I had got my snacks and a few drinks in preparation of what I thought was a big budget movie. The DVD started and the first advert was a film called ‘Snakes on a Train’, I thought this was the well known film which led to ‘Snakes on a Plane’, but as the film trailer progressed it was clear that it wasn’t the original and a very poor low budget remake of it, at this stage I was shocked to see this advert on a big budget movie as this!

The menu appeared which I was disappointed with, as there was no graphical animation, I selected ‘Play Movie’, and the first thing I noticed was the poor quality picture, this is when I knew something wasn’t quite right!

The film started after the very disappointing intro, and straight into an action schene with fighter jets flying through the air, which actually looked like model aeroplanes that had been previously suspended on cotton, the effects were poor and the flying saucers/alien aircraft were un-imaginative and were created in very low resolution effects along with the explosions. I knew at this point that either there was something suspicious about the movie or I had picked up a DVD that was produced from a company that was selling a DVD, that was cheap to make to fool the public and the consumer in buying, letting them think it is the new awaited big budget movie. This poor DVD was even produced this year, so to me it looks as though it was deliberately produced to coincide with the upcoming big movie, and I’m sure it isn’t a coincidence that the titles are so similar, the inferior film called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, compared to the upcoming big budget movie called ‘Battle: Los Angeles’.

I had looked up the movie I had bought ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ online to find out more about it, and found that the movie I had bought was also being sold at some other retailers such as HMV which I was shocked about, it is obvious that this company that created the movie had deliberately made a film with a very similar title and science fiction theme of an alien aircraft battling over Los Angeles, which was exactly the same as the upcoming big movie that hadn’t been released yet and will be on the cinema’s later this year, November 2011, even though the trailers have already been on the TV, which I can’t help but think that this poor remake has benefited from, and I’m very sure they were fully aware of this which is why they have created this inferior film/DVD and released it prior to the release of the big budget movie.

The correct title to look out for, for all those science fiction fans is ‘Battle: Los Angeles’! What made it even worse, is that after I had found out this information on the Internet, I noticed that on the back of the DVD I had bought, right at the bottom there was a note that said ‘NOT Battle: Los Angeles’. So to me legally they covered themselves to let people know that this wasn’t the big budget movie that consumer’s would be expecting, but this was not obvious from the front and I felt was still very misleading. I’m sure the company will also make a lot of money from other consumer’s who would not have been aware of this, and even if they had, they may not think that they could take the DVD back to the store they bought it, thinking that the error was made on their part.

I’m now starting to wonder how many other companies are starting to do this by creating cheap budget movies with the same theme and similar titles of upcoming big movies, and benefiting from the upcoming big budget movie trailers on the TV and online, helping these poor remakes being sold in the high street and online stores.

Beware that this appears to be on the increase. It’s even more scary that these poor remakes can be bought so easily online as it looks like the upcoming blockbuster movie, it has the same theme and storyline, and the cover of the DVD also reflects the science fiction genre, so you would buy it as it was also produced this year. Once you received it, and if you discovered this is a poor remake, then you may be relunctant to send it back due to the hassle in returning/sending it back to the retailer, and again think that the mistake was made on your part. So more sales for the makers of this inferior film/DVD.

So if you don’t want to be disappointed by a cheap science fiction film called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, then wait for the new upcoming, big budget movie called ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ later this year.

I hope the producers of ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ are aware of this, and that the new upcoming blockbuster is not affected by this poor remake.

If you have suffered with similar experiences with DVD’s, then please feel free to adding your comments at the bottom of this article.