Supremely disappointing and shallow

Rating: 4/10 (9 June 2011)

Although I could create an extensive list of cliché one-liners, obvious inconsistencies, and totally unrealistic occurrences (even for a PG-13 sc-fi movie), the underlying reason that I will influence friends to not see this movie is because the plot was weak and shallow.
First of all, there are actually 4 subplots that a viewer has to juggle between!
1) A budding romantic relationship between the two main (middle school) characters 2) Mending a tense father-child relationship(s) (also with both main characters) 3) A group of early teens helping the alien return home and... 4) A son finding a way to cope with the loss of his mother *I might not have deemed 4) as a plot line if it wasn't for the intentionally-dramatic "letting the alien take mom's locket" scene as the last scene in the movie*
These plots were all given fairly even amounts of attention and while they did have some connecting, because there is not much screen-time or time dedicated to deepen dialogue within the individual plots, they all come off as unimportant.
While it does have a fair amount of suspense, the action sequences are typical at best.
Overall, just a flat-out poor showing by high profile names (and a $45m budget).
Like I mentioned in the beginning sentence, there are so many things that just don't make any sense. But the biggest question I had walking away is why did the Air Force end up killing Dr. Woodward??? There was no reason for his murder whatsoever! (Not considering the fact that he was still alive after a head-on collision with a speeding freight train). It's almost funny how drastic that decision was by the "evil Air Force Sargent," Nelec.