rlange-3

First the good -- excellent monster special effects.

Now the bad -- everything else.

The movie is filled with pointless denigration of the soldiers. They are either hyped up on killing like madmen or so busy ignoring orders and philosophizing so as to be useless. The Arabs either act like Taliban or are monster loving mystics and are entirely one dimensional. Five or six soldiers are sent into what is supposed the most dangerous sector in the war. They can't even get proper air support.

All of this is jumbled into a long drawn out hodgepodge which -- is both pointless and boring. l only give it a three because the overall plot and special effects cry out for better treatment.

Why is one of the leaders of a Canadian infantry squad wearing an Arafat kifaya scarf? He even pulls it over his face every time combat starts, as if he is afraid the aliens might take his picture and put it on the internet.

The squad actually decides to just abandon a moderately wounded sergeant because "ya can't save everyone" and he "might slow us down". Worse, despite the script, they don't seem to be in much of a hurry.

Others have commented on the misleading cover, poor acting, and shallow plot. This movie stinks.

That's a shame because I love the "Earth invaded" genre, and there are some potentially creative plot elements including a mysterious alien pod. But that's not enough to overcome the shallowness and boredom.

The start of the movie is crisp and taut, and lays out a tragic crime and some capable characters to solve it. Unfortunately the film quickly loses its way, snarking into class warfare, and derailing completely into the fever swamps of apologetics for Anarchism. The latter comes complete with drippy lines from Bakunin (although nothing of his hatred of "blood sucking" Jews).

After all too much of this, the plot tension over the dramatic opening crime is squandered, replaced by obvious preachy vignettes designed to push the concept that the 'real' villains here are the thuggish cops and the rich. They have to put in yet another crime to recapture any sense of purpose after the class warfare lecture. Unfortunately, this little pick up is immediately metamorphosed into another political lecture, complete with printed jabs at J Edgar Hoover.

In summary: Unsatisfying and trite.