far better than Independence Day, but...

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2005)

There's a spoiler here, as I'll refer to the way this movie ends... so don't read this review if you still haven't seen the flick. If you have read the book, you know that it was placed by the end of the 19th century, and we should consider that Pasteur's discoveries were still a revolution. To say back then that our own diseases were a great defense against an outer space invasion was innovative... but not today: we know about biochemical warfare, and to imply that all the military could do during an invasion was using conventional weapons is a bit naive. Of course one could say that the point of view of the leading characters was that of the common man, but I'm sure that the common man could have suffered the by-effects of those new weapons. I'd say that's the best thing in this movie: Tom and Dakota's point of view, people who don't know what's happening, how or why. But still I think some more substance to the fight could have been added without losing that (ie, that could have been accomplished by a meeting with surviving soldiers). Also, to believe that beings that probably left high-tech machines waiting under the ground for at least several thousand years do not expect our humble Terran flu, is a bit far fetched. There's another issue: this ets did not arrive in meteor shaped cannonballs from Mars, they probably have their mother-ships in orbit, and this was just the first wave that earth people have defeated by the end of the movie. Another loose end... Anyway: good movie, good acting, nice effects, lots of suspense and scary at times, this is worth seeing. But I left the theater wanting more.