(Edited highlights of the panel's review)

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BONNIE GREER:
In the first 15 minutes, I thought it was a terrible movie. I thought it was a corny copy of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Then as I settled into it, I started to listen to it and I could begin to understand why it's such a hit in America because it mirrors a lots of the feelings that Americans have right now. There are all kinds of lines like, "We don't know what is going on out there" and "They're gone, but are they really gone?" That kind of thing.

TIM LOTT:
There are a lot of chilling moments in it, and a lot of funny moments, which is not something I associate with this director. He walks the fine line between wit and horror rather well. The two children are fantastic. I think it was terribly good until the last ten minutes. It's a very stupid ending. Hilariously so, very corny and very cheap.

WILLIAM FEAVER:
What was nice about it and want sunk in and held me more than anything else was the background. The settings, the recurrence of Grant Wood-type �us' in the middle of Americas against the rest of the world, the homesteaders and the necessity to nail a lot of wood up loudly, which always helps when the homesteaders are upset. All of these things fell into place with the floods of familiarity, and it is a familiarity I rather liked.

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