I don't trust IMDb reviews anymore

Rating: 3/10 (13 August 2015)

There used to be a time, oh, about 5 years ago when I would use IMDb reviews to decide whether or not a movie was worth my time. In those days, reviews were rarely higher than 7.5. So if something got a 6 or 7 that meant it was a quality movie. Those days are gone.
Nowadays, many, many substandard, sophomoric, lousy, boring, cheesy (I could check thesaurus.com for more of those type of words but you get the idea) films are getting ratings of 8.
This is one of them.
I like the premise of this movie: a nerdy-type, fish-out-of-water gets put in charge of something big & militaristic & political that he has no business being involved in and ends up over his head and we get to see how he handles it; the plight of space aliens is used as a stand-in for human racism; its filmed outside of Hollywood with no Hollywood actors; there is an aspect of realism to it; the main character grows and has a change of heart.
But other than the premise, there is not much I enjoyed about the actual movie. There's a plot that's full of holes (its never explained why that guy is put in charge of an operation that potentially involves billions in weapons. Why didn't the aliens use their technology to either communicate with humans to ask for help or help themselves? Why is there only one really, really smart and compassionate alien while the rest are like brainless, swarming insects?); flat characters (Why is the model married to the nerd? We never see what makes them love each other); wall-to-wall violence and gore; silly action scenes that make no sense (the military villain guy just keeps going and going while 100's of cronies standing right beside him get blown away); nausea inducing camera work (really, its not artistic or original or gritty to do that anymore); the main actor's use of high-school-play mannerisms (he's supposed to be nerdy and the way we are made to know this is that he stutters out every second word 'ah, an, and, and, and.....I c, I ca, I can't, I can't do that....wh, wha, wha, what?)
If you like blow ups, gore, no character or story development, extensive use of the word fohck, a hero its impossible to give a fohck about, and lots of CGI, this one's for you and you'll be sure to give it a 9 in your review. Otherwise, you'll just be annoyed and fast forward through big chunks like I did.