Soso - Could have been much better

Rating: 6/10 (15 August 2009)

The first part of this review does not contain any spoilers whatsoever. In the section **Spoilers Below** there are spoilers.
I had high hopes for this movie. I consciously avoided all trailers, reviews and articles written about the movie, all I knew was that it was a Sci-fi and that Peter Jackson was involved which was enough to set my expectations pretty high.
The movie also starts out in a very interesting fashion, the premise is not like your regular sci-fi movie and the way the story is initially told was interesting and well done with some pretty good acting. However half-way through the movie it turns somewhat derivative and some stretches towards the end made me think of Independence Day and believe me, that is *not* a compliment.
Another disappointment with this movie is that there are just too many inconsistencies and loose ends. I like sci-fi and horror movies and I don't mind suspension of disbelief but only to a certain point and only if the movie is good enough to warrant it. In this case the movie was just not good enough to have oversight with the inconsistencies and 'requests to check your thinking at the door'.
In all it was an OK movie, if I had not had such high hopes for it I would probably have enjoyed it more. The acting and effects were good an especially the first half was enjoyable and well acted. It is however not a masterpiece and I am a bit surprised with the endless gushing reviews. Then again I was equally surprised with the non-stop positive reviews for King-Kong, another movie that utterly disappointed me.
**Spoilers below** **Spoilers below** **Spoilers below** **Spoilers below**
My main issues with this movie, in no particular order:

Out of over one million 'prawns' there are only three that are reasonably intelligent? Does that really make sense? These three guys are smart enough to create the technology to re-enable the mother-ship but the rest are as dumb as sacks of hammers??

These 'prawns' spend 20 years trying to create the 'fluid' that can power the mother-ship back to their home planet and when they finally achieve it, one of them does not have the smarts to say 'OK, I will sign your piece of paper' to get rid of the humans??? They could have taken off in the dormant space craft five minutes later if that had been the case. There is too big of a discrepancy between their purported intelligence and that stupid behavior.

The aliens are smart enough to create immensely powerful weapons that only they can use, but they don't use them and instead sell them for 100 cans of cat food. Come on. They are living in these slums for 20 years and there is no one among them who would say, 'hey, we have these weapons that make the humans weapons look like pea-shooters, why don't we go get some respect!'. To have these weapons play such a big part of the latter half of the movie and to somehow suggest that no one thought of using them for 20 years is silly!

How can it be that aliens that are dumb as sack of hammers somehow all learn to understand English in a period of 20 years? And how can it be that the main character understands their language without issue, even before he is 'infected'???

When they decide to go raid the headquarters to retrieve the 'fluid' I felt like I was watching an episode of Alias (and that is not a compliment either). - "Hey, let's go get the fluid. It will be very dangerous etc.". - "OK, let's go do it". Then, instantly they are blowing their way into a building. No planning, no obstacles, just a cheap cop-out by the screenwriter.

Once they are in the building looking for the 'fluid', the main character's access codes and finger-print access still works! Oh how convenient. Come on, talk about cheap.

One of the biggest and cheapest setup for a sequel I have ever seen. - "I will be back in three years". - "We do not know if they will be back"... Oh, I think I have the answer to that. If it does OK at the box office it will be back alright.

The main protagonist has no knowledge of the alien technology but still he is able to fly one of their spaceships. This was when I felt the most like I was watching Independence Day. OK, so their technology can only be *used* by anyone with their genetics, fine, I have no problem with that, but to suggest that flying one of their spaceships does not require any kind of training whatsoever is *stupid*. The rest of the prawns are dumb as sacks of hammers but this guy sticks his hands in the controls and somehow just know how to operate the spacecraft? s-t-u-p-i-d

The 'mech' sequence in the end was just too formulaic. The typical 'bad guy who just will not die' syndrome followed by the 'let me talk for long enough while I point my gun at you instead of shooting you on the spot' cliché. I felt like I was watching Iron Man (which was a good movie but there I was expecting a popcorn flick).

There was just too many inconsistencies like this throughout the movie.
The initial setup was good and interesting but they should have spent at least some time on the social structure and aspects of the alien community. Provide some sort of motivation for the inconsistencies above. It felt like someone started out with an interesting idea and a smart script but then the 'marketing heads' decided it had to be 'dumbed down' and 'actioned up' for the summer crowd.