Fun movie...

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2002)

It's pretty funny to see people rip this movie, even calling it laughingly bad. It's no classic for sure, but a fun ride with a classic story (ripped from War of the Worlds with some twists).
Maybe there's not super character development, but we didn't want to see that, we wanted to see the humans v.s. aliens, and this movie certainly delivers. It delivers the same kind of rush as movies such as The Matrix.
There's some solid performances here from Smith, Goldblum, and Bill Pullman. Anyone expecting straight drama for the whole flick should look somewhere else, but there's many good moments (such as Pullman's speech) that are very well done. I don't think a comedy scene here and there (funny at that) detracts from that. There may be cliches, but they are generally well done.
I didn't see any obvious plot holes in this movie, there's some incorrect technical details but the main story points are all possible as it's possible a more advanced society would have less knowledge in certain areas than us, and certainly less knowledge of our culture/planet.
Go see it and decide for yourself. It's a good summer blockbuster in my opinion.
7/10