The following quote is spoilery, but only if you follow the link to read what movie it’s in reference to:
On a less high-minded note, I also liked the ending because I’m an irredeemable dork who gets annoyed at the way monster movies and alien-invasion movies tend to depict the American military as essentially helpless against creatures from another world, with some deus ex machina our only hope of salvation. Obviously, this helplessness is a necessary plot device as much as anything, but I always tend to think that if a huge monster showed up in New York City, or alien tripods starting stalking the East Coast, we’d find a way to take them down. So it was nice to see a monster movie where the U.S. military gets to win one, for a change.
I’ve long felt that way, both for nationalistic reasons and because I find helpless battles pretty boring. This holds for films, books, games, etc. Even if the military is going to lose, at least let them adapt some and get a few hits in.
I think the basic reason for these total defeats is to play up how dangerous the bad guy is and to make the heroes more important. For some reasons it’s not enough that the heroes could be the margin between victory and defeat. Instead they, or the deus ex machina they put in motion, is that only way to even dent the bad guys.
For lots of examples, check the TV tropes entry Redshirt Army.
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