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Locobot · 07-29-2005, 09:50 AM

I thought the purpose of this movie was to offer an opposite view of alien encounters from Speilberg's earlier work on Close Encounters and E.T. and in many respects it did. But then we get to see the actual aliens Spoiler: they're cute and chirpy with big doe eyes. It just doesn't match their behavior of frying every human they see.

Tom Cruise was horrible as usual, the man has no business acting. We're supposed to believe he's some kind of gritty longshoreman while he looks like he just stepped out of an abercrombie ad (I supposed to Cruise that would be slumming it). A lot of empathy I might of had for this character was sacrificed at the altar of Cruise's ego, making him look good.

I was unclear on what the hell was going on with the spray and the red fungus. I figured the spray was some kind of anti-bacterial effort and the fungus was nature's response. Kind of like if you boil something it will grow much nastier mold than if you cook it at a lower temperature. You're naturally selecting only the toughest nastiest bacteria to grow and flourish without competition.

The happy ending was ridiculous. With 3/5 of all humans on the planet dead somehow their mom is fine, her new husband is fine, apparently both sets of grandparents make it, and then the snotty teenager who we just saw run into certain death is fine.

I rationalized the "machines buried a million years ago" thing by figuring that machines could be sent through space faster than living creatures. So they sent the machines ahead to wait for their pilots.

Aside from the wrecked plane fusilage (how didn't that burn their house up?) I didn't find it to be exploitive of our 9/11 memories. Speilberg was certainly using things he saw from 9/11, but for the most part these things were not unique to that instance. He was trying to portray life during wartime and I'd say he did a good job, streams of refugees, missing persons boards, panic and chaos in the streets. He's made three of the best war movies of all time (Empire, Saving, Schindler) and I thought he did a good job of tapping that repository of images.

Great action and effects, atrocious acting, zero empathy for the characters, I'll give it two of five stars.

07-29-2005, 09:50 AM	#57 (permalink)
Locobot is awesome!	I thought the purpose of this movie was to offer an opposite view of alien encounters from Speilberg's earlier work on Close Encounters and E.T. and in many respects it did. But then we get to see the actual aliens Spoiler: they're cute and chirpy with big doe eyes. It just doesn't match their behavior of frying every human they see. Tom Cruise was horrible as usual, the man has no business acting. We're supposed to believe he's some kind of gritty longshoreman while he looks like he just stepped out of an abercrombie ad (I supposed to Cruise that would be slumming it). A lot of empathy I might of had for this character was sacrificed at the altar of Cruise's ego, making him look good. I was unclear on what the hell was going on with the spray and the red fungus. I figured the spray was some kind of anti-bacterial effort and the fungus was nature's response. Kind of like if you boil something it will grow much nastier mold than if you cook it at a lower temperature. You're naturally selecting only the toughest nastiest bacteria to grow and flourish without competition. The happy ending was ridiculous. With 3/5 of all humans on the planet dead somehow their mom is fine, her new husband is fine, apparently both sets of grandparents make it, and then the snotty teenager who we just saw run into certain death is fine. I rationalized the "machines buried a million years ago" thing by figuring that machines could be sent through space faster than living creatures. So they sent the machines ahead to wait for their pilots. Aside from the wrecked plane fusilage (how didn't that burn their house up?) I didn't find it to be exploitive of our 9/11 memories. Speilberg was certainly using things he saw from 9/11, but for the most part these things were not unique to that instance. He was trying to portray life during wartime and I'd say he did a good job, streams of refugees, missing persons boards, panic and chaos in the streets. He's made three of the best war movies of all time (Empire, Saving, Schindler) and I thought he did a good job of tapping that repository of images. Great action and effects, atrocious acting, zero empathy for the characters, I'll give it two of five stars.