Truly dreadful.

Rating: 1/10 (25 March 2011)

A completely unbelievable premise from the start; this cheesy sci-fi nonsense is brimful of unlikely events and cryptic comments which turn out to be psychic predictions of advice needed in days to come. It is impossible to be scared despite the desperate attempts to build up the suspense, as at every moment, the viewer is bombarded by the ridiculous. From the start, the violent death of Mel Gibson's wife is portrayed with more comedy than horror, as she is pinioned between a truck and a tree and with her dying words, begins seemingly to ramble incoherently, including the words "Swing away". As crop circles and aliens (cartoon-style aliens) take over the neighbourhood, the son finds a textbook which seems to somehow predict the whole episode. At last the aliens begin to retreat, for some as-yet-unknown reason, but Mel and his family have a last battle to fight in their home. The alien attempts to kill Mel's child but _fortunately_ he has an asthma attack at that very moment (wouldn't you know it) so does not breathe in the toxic fumes and therefore survives (restoring Mel's faith, which had been sadly lost by the death of his wife). Meanwhile the words of Mel's dying wife are recalled, and Merrill "swings away", splashing the alien with water and thereby killing it (very Wizard of Oz).
Absolutely ludicrous from start to finish - I rarely feel upon exiting a cinema that I have wasted valuable time from my life, but this was one such occasion.