Well-directed but in no way entertaining

Rating: 3/10 (1 July 2005)

Ugh. I didn't expect much from this movie when I came in, primarily from an apprehension of Spielberg's intent to make a smaller, more personal version of the global horror of H.G. Wells' book. I really started to get excited as I started to watch it. Once things started blowing up, I though to myself "Ok, here is where it starts to get intense." Come back to me after an hour and half, and I suddenly realize that I'm not being entertained. I haven't been entertained at all yet. Basically, I've just been watching people get killed for ninety minutes. The movie has a crippling combination of trying to be serious, but continually just thinking up new sadistic ways to kill people. The movie is too busy blowing stuff up to realize that it has characters, or plot, or anything of that nature.
And then there's the ending. I didn't have any problem with the aliens dying the way they did, just the way the movie presented it. As ludicrous as the ending of "Signs" was, it worked with the plot. This ending comes out of nowhere and wraps everything up nicely. Then the movie decides to say, "Oh yeah, remember those characters we killed? Well we brought back the ones you liked." Hardly worth watching. Skip it.