brilliant comic-book fantasy

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2007)

Went into this film with negative expectations, and left with the satisfying feeling of having watched something worthwhile and refreshing in the current political and social climate. For me the clinch point of the movie was its reliance on the comic-book genre, with specific set-piece 'storyboard' - style images accompanied with very few words - just like a comic.
Because the story and the whole experience is centred on alien creatures, the performances of the human actors had to be subordinate to the supreme beings from outer space, and the director delivered this big-time.
A greatly satisfying part of this movie was that it wasn't an all-American 'flag waving' exercise. Sure the robots were engaged in a battle obviously taking place in some US city, and the human heroes were clearly American, but it carefully avoided the normal cop-out involving multiple shots of the Stars and Stripes going into battle to vanquish yet another evil empire. In fact, in this film, it is the invaders themselves who, with the help of the humans, manage to provide the viewer with a very real sense of wonderment and appreciation of the movie for what it is - first-rate, engaging and surreal fantasy.