one huge fatal flaw

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2004)

This movie would be good except for one flaw that, for me, makes it completely irrelevant and unwatchable. If you haven't seen the movie, read no further, because this will definitely spoil it for you. The aforementioned flaw is that the aliens only apparent weakness is water. OK, water... Um, what?? WATER!!?? If these aliens are the least bit intelligent (which they probably have to be to organize the invasion of a planet and construct the means to transport beings to that planet) don't you think they would realize that 70 - 75% of the earth's surface is covered with WATER. Also, what were they going to do when it rained?? This is equivalent to us humans attempting to colonize a planet with huge oceans of cyanide, where it frequently rains cyanide. The only explanation would be that the aliens have never come in contact with water. This is highly unlikely though, as they seem to be an advanced society and there are only so many compounds that you can make out of molecules, the building blocks of everything, and water is one of the simplest and most stable. Also, wouldn't one think that these aliens would survey earth and its contents before invading to determine if an invasion would be beneficial? Sure, M. Night Shyamalan does a fine job with almost all of the technical aspects of the film and I was right there with him in enthusiasm until I learned that the aliens' weakness was water. I especially liked the build-up of suspense and the few startling moments, as well as the fact that the aliens chose to invade not only the cities, but some rural areas too, which is very realistic for a sci-fi movie. These almost make up for the water-weakness, and if you can get past that HUGE flaw, you will enjoy this movie.