Armada

I remember watching a movie once where every every movie previewed was about the eminent end of the world. Only one ordinary random person could save us from utter destruction. Reading Armada, I could see it fit directly into that genre. It is a CGI-fest in the making, complete with a hard-hitting soundtrack, one-dimensional characters, and a bit of requisite sappy drama. It is also a nerd fest with references to numerous classic games and 80s music.
The story (if it even matters) is about an alien invasion of the earth. The government has known about the aliens, but has been covering it up. However, they have been using science fiction movies to acclimate people to the possibility of aliens, while using video games to help train them to fight them. Government scientists have been able to reverse engineer some of the alien technology to fight the aliens and want video game players to remotely control drones. Our "hero", Zach Lightman, is a teenager who has struggled with violence at school. His only outlet is a video game shop where he hangs out and works part time. His dad "died" when he was an infant. One day, he is finally let in on the secrets. The shop owner was actually a government agent to watch over and train him. His dad actually joined the secret Earth Defense Force and was is still alive. His last video game mission was a real attempt to blow away the aliens. The space probes had discovered a swastika on a moon on Jupiter and attempted to blow it up, triggering the alien invasion.
In the end, they fight the aliens. He meets his dad. Dad gets together briefly with Mom and produces another baby brother - only to have Dad die for real in the process of saving the world. Zach realizes that the aliens are behaving too much like a video game. They are only escalating the violence in response to earth's escalation. He leads the effort to prevent a mission from destroying the alien homeland. He then discovers, that it is only an AI sent to "test" the earth to determine if they can peacefully exist. The aliens then give the earth lifesaving technology, and all live happily ever after.
The story is hokey, but fast moving. My biggest complaint is on the language side. This is a PG-13 story needlessly filled with R-rated language.