Four stars for the special effects, zero for everything else

Rating: 4/10 (23 December 2005)

Well, what can you say about a movie like this? The special effects were great. The whole beginning of the movie is quite suspenseful and exciting, due entirely to the effects.
As far as everything else, like acting, story, etc., there's just nothing there. Cruise hardly gives a performance at all, he's just Joe Anybody, not having the least bit of personality other than what we're supposed to intuit from the fact that he drives (surprise!) a hot car. But I guess that basically is the limit of his personality in anything he's ever been in. His ex-wife is the stereotypical shrew, his son is obnoxious and utterly undisciplined, and his daughter, well, his daughter screams into the camera in a manner that should be enough to empty every theater in the country. She's also extremely dumb for her age - her dialogue seems more suited to a toddler than a pre-teen.
The story doesn't really exist. Aliens invade, everybody runs away and hides, eventually the aliens just drop dead on their own. If you're renting this on DVD, feel free to fast forward through any part that doesn't involve special effects - I guarantee you won't miss a thing. It's unfortunate that since this is a remake, they didn't come up with some way of foreshadowing the death of the aliens, so as to give some forward momentum to the story leading up to the conclusion, but that would of course take a combination of creativity and cleverness. Perhaps they should have given the job to the people at the special effects house, since they seem to be the only folks involved in the picture who had either of those two qualities..
Overall, a somewhat below average "big dumb summer blockbuster". Lots of cool special effects, characters that exist solely to run around and give the aliens something to shoot at, and...well, there you have it.