Could have been a decent war movie

Rating: 2/10 (9 March 2006)

Occasionally a sci-fi thriller fails to produce an intriguing plot line or an original fantasy premise, but succeeds on the basis of simply being a good war movie ("Aliens" comes to mind.) This film fails to do even that, although it has some strong performances by supporting cast members: Mary Alice is excellent as the oracle, Jada Pinkett Smith is persuasive as the gung-ho combat pilot, Nona Gaye and others are good as ordinary citizens caught up in the drama of war. On the other hand, the lead actors are uninspired; Keanu Reeves does his usual dazed and clueless routine, Lawrence Fishburne doesn't have much to work with in the script.
The computer-animated battle scenes are boring, for the simple reason that there is too much going on, too fast, on the screen, and it becomes a blur. The sentinel machines are similar to Doc Ock in "Spiderman 2," but in that film the effects were far more engaging, because they were slow enough and detailed enough to follow. And compare the exo-fighting machines in this film, which are pretty lame, to the terrific fight scene in "Aliens," where Sigourney Weaver straps into the exo-fork lift and dukes it out with the creature -- that shows you what can be done.