The biggest issue, is a lack of scope.
Our film is focused entirely in this building, and the main characters inability to leave.
In something like War of the Worlds, you see the scale of the destruction and it conveys the idea that this in an all out war.
The closest we get in the final set piece with a sky battle around the main characters, which is well shot and kinda epic, but it come too little too late, and doesn't do enough to elevate the film beyond the hour and 20 minuets it spent getting there.
Now a smaller scale isn't necessarily bad, like Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, but you need to back it up with something, like some kind of commentary, or strong characters that we wan't to follow.
But we don't get that either, so the film is left with nothing engaging.
Speaking of characters,
Is there anything worse that following people you don't care about? How about following idiots!
But the dumbest comes when the military shows up and lands on the builidng. Why can't we signal for help and rescue? We're at War. No seriously, he don't trust the human military, because "they're at war." Yes! Yes you are at war! And you're civilians! I actually asked a friend who served in the British Army, and apparently they are ordered to keep civilians safe in a firefight and escort them to safety when it's safe to do so. So I don't know what this guy though they would do, and it's especially dumb, since this character is the same one who insisted they hold up and wait for rescue. Then when rescue comes, can't trust them!
But the biggest kick in my pateince comes with,
-THE ENDING So our "heroes" are abducted by the aliens, and the people being taken have their brains taken out and used to give life to new soldiers. But because our main character is super special and important, he takes control of the alien body and uses it to save his girlfriend from a Baby extraction machine (I don't know why. The directors have a weird thing about unborn babies in this and their other film Alien vs Predator 2). So he gets ready to protect her from the aliens and....credits. It just ends. It sets up a final battle and doesn't deliver. I've actually seen people praise this film because it break from traditional Hollywood endings where the humans beat the aliens and everything is all heroic and "unrealistic", BUT THIS FILM SETS UP THE HOLLYWOOD ENDING, AND THEN JUST STOPS! If the film ending with them being abducted, accepting that there is no escape, that would be one thing. But they undercut this idea by setting up a fight and bailing before anything can happen. Having an ending is not a cliche that movies need to move away from like evil businessmen making money while making a monster, or the third act break up. It exists, because a story has to come to an end at a logical point! It's like if Star Wars just abruptly stopped as the ships approached the Death Star; you would feel rightly ripped off!
Is there anything good?
+THE ALIEN DESIGNS The monster design is really interesting; they use a light to hypnotise people and then abduct them, harvesting brains which give life to their machines of war. It feels better than standard aliens that just want destruction. I just wish they were in a better movie.
CONCLUSION It's a flat, dull movie populated by idiots that I don't care about. Cool aliens, but they're wasted on a movie that doesn't even have an ending.
Speaking of characters,
- BORING CHARACTERS
Is there anything worse that following people you don't care about? How about following idiots!
- STUPID DECISIONS
But the dumbest comes when the military shows up and lands on the builidng. Why can't we signal for help and rescue? We're at War. No seriously, he don't trust the human military, because "they're at war." Yes! Yes you are at war! And you're civilians! I actually asked a friend who served in the British Army, and apparently they are ordered to keep civilians safe in a firefight and escort them to safety when it's safe to do so. So I don't know what this guy though they would do, and it's especially dumb, since this character is the same one who insisted they hold up and wait for rescue. Then when rescue comes, can't trust them!
But the biggest kick in my pateince comes with,
-THE ENDING So our "heroes" are abducted by the aliens, and the people being taken have their brains taken out and used to give life to new soldiers. But because our main character is super special and important, he takes control of the alien body and uses it to save his girlfriend from a Baby extraction machine (I don't know why. The directors have a weird thing about unborn babies in this and their other film Alien vs Predator 2). So he gets ready to protect her from the aliens and....credits. It just ends. It sets up a final battle and doesn't deliver. I've actually seen people praise this film because it break from traditional Hollywood endings where the humans beat the aliens and everything is all heroic and "unrealistic", BUT THIS FILM SETS UP THE HOLLYWOOD ENDING, AND THEN JUST STOPS! If the film ending with them being abducted, accepting that there is no escape, that would be one thing. But they undercut this idea by setting up a fight and bailing before anything can happen. Having an ending is not a cliche that movies need to move away from like evil businessmen making money while making a monster, or the third act break up. It exists, because a story has to come to an end at a logical point! It's like if Star Wars just abruptly stopped as the ships approached the Death Star; you would feel rightly ripped off!
Is there anything good?
+THE ALIEN DESIGNS The monster design is really interesting; they use a light to hypnotise people and then abduct them, harvesting brains which give life to their machines of war. It feels better than standard aliens that just want destruction. I just wish they were in a better movie.
CONCLUSION It's a flat, dull movie populated by idiots that I don't care about. Cool aliens, but they're wasted on a movie that doesn't even have an ending.