Extraordinary DISAPPOINTMENT....spoilers

Rating: 1/10 (3 July 2005)

To say that Steven Spielberg's latest is an extraordinarily dismal disappointment is a HUGEEEEE understatement. From start to finish this movie and it's characters lacked realism, drama, suspense and above all: Common Sense.
I could neither connect to the quarrelsome characters or the movie's disjointed and absolutely idiotic flow. From the emergence of the first alien, the audience is taken on an insane ride that defies physics, probability and sense: Only the main characters' car is functional, only the main characters' home has electricity, and only the main characters are quarreling with each other and behaving in every way as if the world is not being literally vaporized before their very eyes.
Would a child go hundreds of yards away from her father and brother to urinate in the remotest part of a field after fleeing a city where the entire population was running in a panic while building were collapsing around them? And what son would angrily demand answers of his father as they fled this scene though he was as much a witness to the very same chaos? And upon reaching some semblance of safety, who in command of any remaining senses would make sauntering to the kitchen bar and asking 'What should we eat?' their second priority? No surprise/gratitude that the electricity is on in what could well be the only temporary haven in the entire city, no barricading doors, no fear, no shakes, no thought of what to do next, no disbelief at all ... just what should we eat.
And is it even possible fliers for missing family and friends could be posted from end to end at the ferry? By the movie's chronology, the invasion began (at the utmost) a little over 24 hours previous, how and when did this panic-stricken, fleeing-for-their-lives Population of Entire Cities have time to make fliers, leave alone having the wherewithal to secure the materials to do so while in the midst of a Alien & Horrific Invasion? That people would ask about loved ones once their panic and running subsided and they came upon others certainly, but who would grab posters, papers, pens or anything else in the midst of collapsing buildings and vaporizing rays of death and destruction? That stretches the imagination so far that I watched thinking it could not possibly get worse, but darn if the insanity didn't keep coming, with the ferry scene leading the way.
Is it reasonable to think (even for a millisecond) that barring the ferry at the sounds of approaching aliens, and leaving it half filled would save even one life against these 300ft high metal creatures, shooting death rays? The more so when (as one commenter stated), where the heck was the ferry going anyway and was there even a tiny hope they could actually get there with such indestructible aliens in pursuit? But this movie has nothing to do with reason as the subsequent scenes drove home even harder than the previous ones.
For how is it possible for a car to rush head long from a tilted and sinking ferry straight into our water dumped main characters yet propel them only a tad under the water. How could they not safely swim away from what amounted to a playful dunk? Or...
How could a hand full of people literally play tug of war against an alien tentacle and not only win but free the human in the Alien's clasp Intact and Unharmed? One would think the poor guy stuck in the tentacle's clasp would have snapped somewhere between the pull of such strengths. And....
When and why did the Aliens change their strategy of destruction from the overall death ray sweeps (that frankly was working darn well) to the individualized and personal, one on one killings? For that matter why where they bothering to collect them at all? The movie gave not even a hint of a reason why humans were being collected then plucked out of the cages one by one for extermination, especially since the mass killings were going so well. Or...
Why instead of torching buildings and homes they suddenly took to individually checking them. Surely if there was a suspicion of life, the broad laser vapor that instantly disintegrated human flesh, burned earth and buildings but was miraculously ineffective against cloth (go figure that one), should have sufficed. Yet instead we have tiny aliens searching individual basements.
Obviously, a quick invasion was not on their agenda. Nor was a believable or entertaining movie on Spielberg's or the finished product would have at least been adequate. And it certainly wouldn't have ended with the little ex-wife, waiting calmly at home, peering out the window of a very intact and lit house as if she wasn't even aware an alien invasion was going on.
Did the Aliens attack all of the world except Boston...lol
Save your money. This was a major clunker and a major disappointment. Spielberg can and has done far far far far far better.