Rating of
2/4
Bland
Franz Patrick - wrote on 10/06/08
Even though this made millions of dollars in the box office, it’s a very disappointing film overall because it’s pretty on the outside but has nothing to offer inside. I think the filmmakers focused too much on the visual effects to the point where they totally ignored the emotional core. When it tried to be sentimental, it just didn’t work because most of the characters are one-dimensional so the audience can’t relate to their struggle. I expected this film to have more teeth and bite–the closest it came to reaching my expectations were scenes where we see the aliens up close. There’s real suspense during those scenes because we’re as curious as the characters that are interacting with them. As for its pacing, I couldn’t believe nothing happened during the first fifty minutes of the picture. In those minutes, characters are merely walking around or panicking. After those suffocating minutes, the film got a bit better but not by much. The action scenes were uninspired and the characters had out of place one-liners that weren’t funny. I was glad for the film to end, which unfortunately took two hours and thirty minutes. It wasn’t worth it at all because we had to wait for long periods of time for three-minute somewhat above average payoffs.
