The movie is about a boy who loses his father at a young age and has to live with his stepmother. Even though his stepmother loves him he thinks that he is alone and she is stuck with him.
Wait a minute! Isn't this movie supposed to be about an alien landing on Earth to wipe out the human race so that the planet can survive? Who cares about a smart ass kid who thinks he knows best and tries to mess up everything.
The plot notwithstanding the movie feels like everything is subdued for some reason, there are very few shots of GORT while we're made to watch endless scenes of a deadpan Keanu Reeves and a pleading Jennifer Connelly. Overall a pretty dull movie with all stereotypical characters and very few action scenes to redeem it. I couldn't fathom why it was released in IMAX when there were so few action scenes. Not even recommended for Jennifer Connelly fans.
Lest you loyal readers complain that I'm being to harsh in my criticism I will point out three good things about the movie - Watchmen, Star Trek and X-Men Origins: Wolverine; rather the trailers for these three films were screened before the movie.