I think a lot of you don't get it

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2002)

**********POSSIBLE SPOILERS THROUGHOUT**********
I've read some of the reviews here on the IMDB and one thing comes to mind: A lot of you have no idea what the movie is about, or just didn't pay attention to the dialogue. There's a lot of....
1) Why did the aliens come to a planet that's 2/3 water when they are harmed by water.
2) Why did the alien look so cheap.
3) The characters don't act like people really would.

Well allow me to try to explain it to all of you nay sayers.

1) There are a lot of explanations for this. One could be that they would have inhabited the other third of the planet. That's like what, 400 square feet. The world's a small place right? Another explanation could be that they weren't aware of the fact they could be harmed by water. Sure it seems silly but tell me, how does one know when they are allergic to a certain medicine or when one doesn't like a certain type of food. You aren't born with the knowledge that you aren't going to like steak before you even try it.
2) For those of you that don't understand the film I'm going to try my darndest to explain it to you. For those of you that did understand the movie but still had something bad to say about the look of the alien all I can say is that the Director is presuming not to know what aliens actually look like. Since none of us have actually seen them or know the extent of their existence he's not going to show us a tall lanky green alien with a huge head and big yellow eyes. That's also why all the scenes where we see the aliens the best is somewhat blurry. That was Spielberg's mistake with A.I. He used the same aliens from Close Encounters. Unless he has a few aliens living in his backyard I assure you he doesn't know what they look like if they do exist.
3) I find this totally untrue and I'm going to cite certain examples from the movie to show you that. The scene at dinner where Mel Gibson breaks down and then the children come over and hug him. I've heard it said that no child of that age would do what was done after having just been yelled at. He would most likely go running into the other room. I have a 10 year old niece that is actually one of the smartest people I know. Smarter than a lot of the adults I know as well and would have handled the situation the same way. Just because someone is a child doesn't mean that they always act like a baby and start whining and crying. And vice versa. Just because someone is an "adult" doesn't mean they always act like an adult. The best scene of this movie is another example of this. When Mel Gibson crouches down to his sons height and proceeds to tell him of the day he was born. How awesome of a scene is that? If it hadn't hit yet, that scene should have been pretty clear that this wasn't a movie about an alien invasion but rather something else. And that is most likely what a real father that thought he and his family was going to die would do. They wouldn't have run.
The Director is not an idiot and he is not going to treat the movie going public like they are idiots. That is why at the beginning of the movie there wasn't a disclamier saying that this movie is not really about aliens and that's why there aren't going to be very many aliens throughout the movie. He left it up to you to figure out what the movie was about. Obviously a lot of you had trouble doing so. If you wanted to see an ID4 type movie then go rent it. That may be the kind of movie that racks up all the millions but I guarantee you that the Director would rather his movie tanks while making it his way then it makes millions by being a cheesy alien film.