Jeff Goldblum, King of the Nineties Summer Blockbuster....

Rating: 3/10 (15 June 2013)

In the early days of July, a strange spaceship heads towards Earth. Humans receive a strange signal, and this has turned into a global phenomenon.
Smaller spaceships began to cover entire cities around the world. Suddenly, the wonder turns into horror as the spaceships destroy the cities.
When we counter attack, the alien ships appear invincible to normal weapon systems,
The President of the United States, decides to head to area 51, to formulate a plan to defeat the aliens, and Will Smiths one liners.
Now, the fate of the world rests on a handful of surviving humans....
My gosh the years have not been kind to this movie. Compared to other movies from 1996, its really looks dated and doesn't hold up.
And this is why I really dislike the movie now. Back then, on the big scree, it was awesome, Smith was huge, and we hadn't seen anything like this since maybe Jurassic Park.
Forward fifteen years, Smith has lost his touch with Hollywood and effects like this are seen on releases almost every week, which leaves nothing more than the story, which is good, but the narrative and the script are dire, just terrible.
When the Aliens are not attacking, we either get Pullman saying something prolific, or dressing down another character for not agreeing with him, or Will Smith being really smug, knowing he is becoming the biggest star in the world.
Luckily we have Goldblum to save the day and almost the film playing basically Ian Malcom again. He out acts everyone in the movie and makes it shine whenever he's on screen.
It's a shame he isn't in every single frame, because the film would have been a little better. The support are caricatures from every trope going, and I feel sorry for those who haven't seen this yet, because they will probably dislike it more than myself.
This is what happens to movies when they rely on special effects.
They get old...