A Beautiful Action Flick!

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2008)

Many people seem to have a problem with this picture. Some people do not like it because it is an action movie. Some people do not like it because it takes a well established, tried and tested plot of hostile aliens, rather than the friendly alien like ET. Some people have a problem because of the eventual method that is used by one of the lead characters of the movie in order to bring down the defense system of the aliens. But I do not find any of this too objectionable to down rate this movie as much as I have seen it has been.
The story starts with alien space ships taking strategic positions across the various major cities of the world. We see an amazing effect of the city being engulfed by the shadow of the mammoth space ship hovering over it. And then, people are divided in opinions about the intention of these spaceships. Of course, it is clear from the kind of positions the ships take that the intentions are more hostile than friendly. But yet people literally throw a welcoming party for the aliens and of course pay a price for it. Some of these things have led to severe criticism from many viewers and critics. But let us put these aside for a while and see what happens next. The alien ship fires an incredibly powerful weapon that leaves the city in wreck. The sound and sight of this destruction is the strength of the movie. The movie is about war and it is war that this movie shows beautifully.
And the next thing you have is an attempt by the best fighter planes trying to take the ship out. But they realize that there is a computerized shield that protects the ship. The movie follows through and finally shows the computer wizard realizing that a computer virus can disable the ship's shields for enough time so as to allow an obliteration of the ships. Again, many people have criticized this. Well, the argument goes that a civilization so advanced could not be weak enough for a virus. But there are many things we do not know about this civilization. Let us not forget that it our tendency to think in a certain way that eventually led to the creation of viruses. Did the aliens think in the same way? Mostly not! Thoughts, ideas and civilization, in general, would have advanced completely differently for them and they surely would not have even heard of a computer virus. So, I personally feel that this idea is not as bad as people are calling it.
For smooth fight sequences and computer graphics, this movie is in a different league altogether. I cannot think of a better way of doing all the action sequences. Critics may argue that there are loop holes in the plot and yes, some of these loop holes are strong enough to ensure the movie does not go down in cinematic history, but I still would like to give it a ten on ten for I have found the merits overwhelmingly more striking than the demerits. A beautiful action movie indeed!