I had seen the original in 1996, when the whole theatre cheered the alien deathray  that blew up the White House. In the sequel, the imperial mansion is spared. The heroic Hillaryesque president–albeit good-looking and thin–is also president of the planet. She announces that earthlings must again triumph over the aliens because of what we’ve achieved in the last 20 years: world government. She’s killed and replaced by a man, but it’s OK: he’s a general. The handsome Bill Clintonesque ex-president sacrifices himself to blow up the alien ship. Whatagal, whataguy.

BTW, the reviews are right. This is a very bad movie. One doesn’t care about whether the earth will be saved at the last minute or not, nor whether any of the stereotypical characters live or die. The CGI is repetitive and boring.

NB: the movie is un-PC in one way. The earth is being visited by advanced hive insects. Is it OK to exterminate them, just because they look different from us? Yes, holds the movie. But wouldn’t these undocumented immigrants enrich us? Isn’t species diversity a Good Thing?

BTW: Rockwell’s Law holds once again. If they can’t make an interesting trailer, the movie is no good.

Writes Dom Armentano:

Lew, Almost all of these “alien” movies are techno-junk, especially the modern ones. It was not always so. Some of the older ones are reasonably clever and interesting such as the great 1951 Robert Wise directed “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Michael Rennie’s regal and intelligent alien performance has never been approached much less bested.

Dom Armentano