Irrefutably Putrescent

Rating: 1/10 (13 August 2013)

I will start with the positive aspects of this film, of witch there are few. Mel Gibson is believable, if only because all he had to do was look slightly downcast and beyond that be emotionless. The movie is slightly frightening at times and the scenes in the corn are legitimately scary.
Aside from these small redemptions, this movie is ridiculous. Although the aliens can travel across the universe and make themselves invisible, they are completely incapable of protecting themselves from their weakness, water (?), which covers most of the surface of the planet they are attacking, is the most common part of the beings they plan to harvest, they cannot escape from rooms if they are boarded up, they cannot fight or exert any strength on anything... The list goes on.
Near the end, an alien that is left behind in the house grabs the boy, who is suffering from asthma. Then, in the least effective scene I have seen in any movie, the family all stares in horror at the alien. The father has a religious realization while he is staring... Meanwhile, the alien continues to stand there, not moving, apparently equally appalled as the humans. He makes no attempt to escape, does not harm the boy, and waits a full five minutes, waits until the family realizes that they could hurt the alien with a baseball bat (genius!) to use his poison spray. Why not attack the alien earlier? Why not take the boy and escape? Why didn't the family take the medicine down with them? Why didn't they have weapons with them? Why is this movie so terrible?!?!
The theme of the movie is religious. I can accept that, except that it is badly contrived and makes a ridiculous connection between religion and coincidence. The bizarre tendency for the little girl to leave cups of water out is a blatant setup for the ending, when water is exposed as the aliens' weakness. The boy's asthma was also obviously set up for the poison gas the alien sprays in his nose. And it is apparently miraculous that the main character's wife told him to tell Merril to keep playing baseball. Because she obviously meant that only he, great baseball player that he was, could possibly use a baseball bat to kill an alien. And because they had all of their own bizarre problems or talents (the ability to swing a baseball bat, for example), this means that some divine being is looking out for them. A completely immature and nonsensical interpretation of religion. A clumsy and pathetic attempt to convey this theme. God-awful.
Do not ever watch this movie. It is an insult to science fiction, to movies, to writers, to the audience.