This film is so so average...but does it predict the future??

Rating: 6/10 (17 July 2008)

As we all know, this film isn't very good... An undefeatable force of aliens is defeated, by Will Smith. It's ridiculous obviously! But what I want to look at is the proleptic nature of th film.
This is a pre 9/11 film and just as well because I don't think it would have been half as successful or entertaining had it been post 2001. This is because when the movie was first seen, blowing up buildings from the sky was not a reality....it was very very cool. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centres taste in action films, particularly American taste, has changed radically.
The remarkable element of this film is that it managed to satirise the war with Iraq before it even happened, let me explain:
In the film America has some big buildings destroyed by a force they do not understand and are threatened by, and of course they assume that the rest of the world is threatened also without really asking them! Then America saves the day with the President leading the troops from the front line, the only solution is to totally destroy this new life form. Surely this film represents the George Bush dream world in which he, and preferably Will Smith, save the human race.
The truth is, this film could be re-released today and modern critics would slate it for being unsubtle American propaganda. The stunning point of this film is that it was made in 1996!
As films go however this one isn't that good.