Broadly, there is a fairly compelling idea at the core of this film: depicting the on-the-ground human resistance against an invading alien force, drawing on imagery and themes ranging from World War II (collaboration with the enemy driven by fear and/or self-interest) to America Today™ (heavily militarized policing of urban neighborhoods). But the execution is deeply unsatisfying and frequently incoherent.

Beholden to a groan-worthy and preposterous denouement (the questions pile up fast and furious: ), the storytelling is obscenely long on obfuscation and red herrings. We constantly follow a thinly developed character, all the same shade of humorless, for a few beats only for them to be discarded or set aside for a long stretch of screen time.

Rooting interest is nonexistent, so there is no poignancy nor any sense of triumph. The specific nature of certain relationships is hard to pinpoint (and not in an enigmatic way). At times, it is truly difficult to understand who is doing what, let alone to whom or why. This is compounded by an ugly aesthetic defined by functional-at-best, dourly lit hand-held cinematography and haphazard editing.

There is also an unfortunate air of pretense: this film firmly believes itself to be one of Big Ideas, no mere genre bonbon, so it denies simple pleasures (such as more than a few fleeting scenes featuring the menacing aliens themselves) as it fumbles and stumbles in its bid to be clever, timely, "hip," etc.

Lol I actually didn't mind this. Yeah it's a little hard to follow, but I was immediately drawn in to it by the concept and I like the fact that it's basically an old school political thriller disguised as an alien invasion flick. I just wish they explained certain things better, because some of it didn't seem to make much sense, especially how the aliens weren't able to track the bombs themselves when they were specifically made out of alien tech. The actually design of the aliens were pretty damn cool and interesting as well. At least something I can't remember seeing in any other movie.

B-

I expected an alien invasion flick and this gave me a political thriller. There are tons of things that are introduced left and right just for the sake of it and not many scenes are tense even for a political thriller. Aliens design is really good here but they are used as props. It wastes all its talented cast into a messy script which stupidly squanders its potential.

D