Slow movie with Unbearably bratty kids

Rating: 4/10 (6 July 2005)

I saw the trailer on Oprah, and it looked really good. Too bad I went to see the movie because the best parts were in that trailer.
To be fair, the movie begins well -- nice set up of the characters, interesting, suspenseful beginning. Then it gets old really, really fast.
What also caught me by surprise was how unbelievably bratty and maddening the kids were. If there were a theme to the movie, it would be that parents' love is unconditional. I would have left them in a hurry (and I don't feel bad about saying that -- someone wrote the characters with very little redeeming qualities except for the fact that they are someone's kids). The little girl is beautiful -- except when she's covered in ash -- then she looks ghostly and is eerily frightening, like she was taken out of a horror movie & misplaced in this one. She is a good actress, though, and when she let out her high pitched girlie scream (several times in the movie), I really wanted to commit physical violence -- and I'm known for my gentle nature, no joke. Same with her brother -- over-teen-aged kid who wants to "join the action" -- never mind that the action is a many-legged, bloodsucking space alien -- does he have a brain??? I wanted to leave several times during the movie; and I wanted to throttle the kid characters several more times. I only made it through because I was writing this blurb in my head. Thank goodness I went to the matinée and didn't pay full price. If you saw the trailer, you saw enough.