Great dog-fights & fxs, but fails

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 1999)

The plot is enough to attract anyone to this film. Back in 96, this was really fantastic movie. Now, in 99, it was just your basic big budget Hollywood popcorn movie. I wasn't into analyzing movies back then and thought this was one of the best movies ever made. Looking back on it, and having knowledge of the real SETI program and countless other space scientists, I found it to be an implausible, inaccurate, and unreal flick. But it's sci-fi, so it doesn't matter.
But my comment could be used in how the filmmakers forget their own logic and use it to advantage: referring to the chase scene in the Grand Canyon. If the ships had shields, how could a parachute penetrate? And in that very first dogfight, the alien ships preformed excellent maneuvers. In the second, when they really needed it, they just stood still and blew up. And you'd think with an alien colony as advanced, as they were, they'd have developed virus protection. Of course, if they did we'd have no movie.
But aside from the plot holes and flaws, the fxs were something to watch. I think it was directed well, but needed a few rewrites and a better look into characters and development. I'm not even gonna get into Godzilla. That was just their worst work. It looks like they never learned.