this is a spielberg movie?

Rating: 2/10 (2 July 2005)

from the man who produced saving private ryan, schindler's list, jaws, close encounters, raiders of the lost ark and even jurassic park, we get this?
i won't go into the plot holes that are numerous throughout the movie. (without electricity, gas station pumps don't work) the totally unnecessary and far too long basement/cellar scene with tim robbins which left me scratching my head. (this scene could have been totally excised with no loss) and the sloppy hastily written ending with a saccharine sweet ending (oh how nice, the dead irritating son is alive again for the reunion in the totally unspoiled part of boston).
the real problem with this movie is the fact that these characters are totally unsympathetic. why do i care about this lout of a father? how about his teen age son with an unexplicable death wish? what about the ear piercing screams of his daughter? HELLO! screaming is not a substitute for acting! my ears were bleeding half way through the movie.
i was absolutely and extremely BORED throughout this movie. i can't even count the number of times i looked at my watch.
unlike jurassic park, this movie lacks imagination. These hyper advanced aliens were cut down by germs? Why don't we use scientific ideas verbatim from a book written over a hundred years ago?
Independence Day, which has its own glaring problems, realized this plot hole and at least were able to convert the germs in HG Wells' book to something contemporary, a computer virus.
There is no question that this movie is a huge disappointment and is definitely a movie that should be regarded as one of spielberg's much lesser works.