The emperor has no clothes!

Rating: 2/10 (6 July 2003)

I really don't understand why people like this movie so much. I can only imagine the masses have bought into the hype and are not thinking clearly. A lot of people who didn't like this movie express themselves in, shall we say, a rather classless manner ("it's sucks ----"). The people who do like the movie do so because the "found something deeper" and therefore feel a little superior to those who missed the point. I can only guess that the rest of the people who claim to like this movie are only doing so to appear like they are smart and didn't miss the deeper meaning. Well, I just want to say "There is no real deeper meaning. This is just a bad movie. Period." The emperor has no clothes.
*spoilers*
I think that everyone agrees that the alien plot is stupid, but the people who like this movie seem to forgive that aspect of it in favor of the "deep" spiritual message. Well, lame aliens and plot holes aside, the spiritual message didn't work for me either. The movie's big point, either you believe in God's plan, or you don't, is a cop out. It looks like something at first, but it's really not. In truth, God's biggest gift to mankind is supposed to be Free Will. However, this is contradictory to the notion that God has a plan for us. You cannot have free will if God has a plan for you.
And what kind of plan is it for someone to have to die a horrible death, so she can deliver a cryptic message to save the world that only works because of bad plot holes? Please.
The last thing that bugs be about this movie is that people claim that it is scary. Huh? How? When? Even if you buy into the spirituality, then how can you consider the aliens scary? You'd need to accept the stupid plot to be scared of the aliens. I mean, how can you be scared of an alien that can't get out of a pantry? If people are as smart as they say they are, then they shouldn't be scared by this movie.
Finally, some of the reviews here say that there is yet another deeper level to this movie, that the whole thing is Mel Gibson's dream. Well, that is interesting, and may even be true, but it doesn't make this a better movie. It explains away the plot holes somewhat, but then it loses whatever spiritual message that it had. God didn't have a master plan for everyone and his wife's death was a senseless as ever. Why would that dream restore his faith?
So, on the whole, not a good movie. It had good music, okay acting and a good production quality, but for what? 2/10 rating. Basically, disappointing.