Who Will Tell The Truth?

Rating: 3/10 (6 July 2005)

Perhaps I'm just too old (44) or have seen too many movies. Whatever the explanation I really don't think this movie rates more than 3 stars and I'm only going that far on technical merit.
In short, this movie was nothing more than a sci-fi effects spectacle.
No plot (other than aliens attacking), no side stories, weak characters (all of them), etc, etc. While Spielberg and Cruise can sell pictures solely on their name recognition, you still have to have content to back it up. That being said, I wonder who is being paid to write these reviews that average 7 out of 10 stars. I really wanted to like this movie and looked forward to it. Alas it does not deliver the goods. I suppose if you have never seen an alien movie of this type (say my 5 year old son) you might be inclined to give it a 8 or 9.
I sincerely feel like the press is in the back pockets of the movie industry. This is going to backfire on them, mark my words. (and this movie still wasn't the silver bullet they have been looking for!) If Hollywood continues to put out this type of product, pays for reviewers to praise it as highly as they have, only for customers to go to the movie and leave disappointed; THEY WILL NOT EASILY BE BROUGHT BACK TO THE MOVIES! (at least not for $8.50 a pop) I am only writing this review to warn others so that they will not fall for the hype as I did. One would have thought that this was THE movie of the summer. The reality is that it ranks right up there with Waterworld IMO. Upon further thought, Waterworld was better.