Enjoyable 'gung-ho' hokum

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2007)

Excellent special effects of alien spacecraft posed above LA, Washington and New York in broad daylight. Best sequences were of the cities destruction  but surely a more effective way (neutron radiation?) could have been devised to wipe out mankind with such advanced technology? Apart from the effects sequences the film was full of plot holes, completely unbelievable & predictable and had an unbearable 'gung-ho' American attitude. There were references to Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Dr Strangelove' as well as more than a passing similarity to the 1953 film version of H.G. Wells 'The War of the Worlds' and 1977's 'Star Wars'. All of these films were far superior.
Absurd sequences include the following: knocking the alien unconscious  then later the same alien is virtually invincible and seems to be much larger; Air Force Ones's very narrow escape from Washington (and the fact that the President would be allowed to stay in The White House until the last moment); the fact that the spaceships were so indestructible & fast and that there were so many of them versus the air force jets; the absurdly easy way in which an Apple PowerBook was able to interface (remotely) with the alien's computers and shut down their force shield; the way in which the alien craft conveniently did not crash on top of Area 51 when it was brought down; the idea of the President piloting a jet like Luke Skywalker; and the ease with which all the alien craft were brought down around the world when it took the entire might of the USA air force to destroy the one above Area 51 (even without the force shield). Still despite all this it was great fun and I really enjoyed it!