Sci-fi for real

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2005)

Well. I liked this one. I'll give you three reasons.
1. It's dark. Actually, it's scary all the way through. I can't even remember hearing a single witty one liner. Much of the earth is destroyed and billions of people are killed, that shouldn't be funny. It should be dark.
2. In it's genre it felt real. Granted, aliens invading earth to drink our blood can never feel real. This one just about pulls it off, though. The focus on one family works wonders. They don't really know what's going on and don't have a lot of answers. They just try to survive. A focus on, say, the president or the military would have meant weapons, tactics and heroes. The feeling of presence and relating would be lost in such a big and formal perspective.
3. Visuals. Very impressive. The illusion didn't break once.
I'm sure a lot of people will have many objections and unanswered questions about this one. What did the aliens want? Wouldn't such a technologically advanced species be able to prevent what ends up killing them? But for me, that's what's good about it. The darkness, presence and sense of relating would have been somewhat lost if all questions were answered. Who could possibly have answers in the midst of annihilation and confusion? This was nothing like Independence Day. It was more like Alien, gritty and claustrophobic. This is sci-fi for grown ups.