a roller-coaster, with a sudden and confusing stop

Rating: 4/10 (1 July 2005)

This film struck me as very similar to Independence Day - a load of aliens attack the Earth for no particular good reason, and all retaliation fails completely until one tiny thing manages to destroy the entire fleet.
Similar to Independence Day, the film is action-packed from the beginning to the end, which manages to temporarily distract you from some nagging questions.
Rachel, the kid, manages to scream her way through the entire film, even though she seemed so smart and "with it" in the beginning. There was no character development with her role that I could see. She was there merely as a prop for Ray (her father) to demonstrate his growing familial responsibility.
Justin was the standard rebellious youth.
The major annoyances of the film, in my opinion were: If there are so many broken-down cars, then why were the army's vehicles in perfect working order? Is it at all likely that a car can travel at full speed down a motorway which is packed with stopped cars? When we send people to Mars, we will most likely send space suits along with them - why didn't the Martians think of that? If the Martians buried their fighting machines so long ago, then wouldn't a) we have found one accidentally, b) they have rusted or something, c) looked like something other than a mid-21st century human technology? How the hell did Justin survive the massacre half-way through he film - there was no explanation; he just "turned up" at the end?
Apart from those gripes, I did enjoy the film. The graphics were amazing, and as far as I could tell, flawless. I don't know how they managed some of the camera-work - it was similar to the huge fight scene in Matrix 2, where cameras were viewing from locations they shouldn't possibly be. The opening scene is an example - the camera somehow zooms out of the sky and closes in on Ray, who is sitting in the box at the top of a crane.
If you enjoyed Independence Day, then see this film.