Independence Day without the humour

Rating: 3/10 (1 July 2005)

There's lots of CGI mayhem, as you'd expect. There's a big bass-heavy sound track to keep you jumping in your seat, of course. The aliens are exactly as you've seen them a dozen times before (the consensus on what aliens look like is peculiar, given that nobody has ever seen one). There is nothing to get your teeth into plot-wise. Tom Cruise's journey to cuddly daddy-hood is dull and irritating, and frequently saccharine to the point of embarrassment. The audience jumps, but is rarely scared. The in-jokes and semi-topical references (to ET and 9/11) do not lift the piece into enjoyable kitsch, as happened with Independence Day. And the familiarity of the whole scenario acts like a dead-weight. In short, a safety-first cash-in that brings nothing new to the party.