Mindless drivel.

Rating: 2/10 (11 July 2007)

Boy oh boy. After a long time I saw this movie again---several years ago I watched parts of it on TV in a hotel room, and all I remembered was my incredulity at (SPOILER AHEAD) the president actually getting into a fighter plane himself to personally face the aliens. Lord almighty. Anyway, the thing was sitting on a disc somewhere, and I thought I'd give it another try, maybe it really wasn't that bad after all.
Boy was I wrong.
It actually turned out to be WAYYY worse than I even remembered it. I suppose watching it out of the corner of my eyes while preparing some talk slides or whatever I was doing made me miss the truly horrible acting and the absolutely preposterous screen writing of this cinematic monster turd. Bill Pullman's career should have ended right there and then. He is a pretty lame actor, but this was beyond bad---I have honestly seen better performances in middle school plays. The rest of the cast was mostly rubbish, too, although it's difficult to say because their characters were laughable. But nothing hurt as bad as Pullman's baby face affecting toughness, and failing. He is not alone, though, even the extras overact in ways that oscillate between really annoying and outright laughable.
Another reviewer here explains the score of "only six" by assuming that most people here saw the movie on TV, when it should be seen in the cinema. I suppose that might be true for someone who is mainly interested in special effects, grandiose camera movements, and lots of explosions---there is lots of those in this movie, and they are most likely better enjoyed on a larger screen.
From my perspective, a score of more than six is hugely overrating this nonsense production, which is not best viewed in the cinema but rather not at all---at least for those of us who enjoy actors acting, and who think that "suspending disbelief" does not mean shutting any brain activity whatsoever.
Good things? Some visuals were okay, I like Goldblum (don't know why, I just do), and Will Smith was so-so.
Save your time on this one, you deserve better than this. Anybody does.