How others will see it. Young men, in particular, love this movie. Not just for the cool sets and freaky aliens, but the plot of a conspiracy of aliens dominating us appears to be so original. That is, if you haven't seen They Live.
The film also benefits, to a certain degree, from a creepy supporting role from a heavy-breathing, nerdy-looking Kiefer Sutherland, and the usual bland performances from somnabulent William Hurt and pallid but gorgeous Jennifer Connelly.
How I felt about it. It's all rather silly, and reminiscent of the pilot to the original Star Trek series. A dying alien race manipulates humans because they need our souls. Or, perhaps, they're bored with their own company, which would not be a surprise since they're all bald and ugly and wear similar dark trenchcoats.
About the only good thing to come out of this grand social experiment is the pairing of John (Rufus Sewell) and Jennifer Connelly, who must really love each other regardless of implanted memories, since they are the two best looking cast members. Something like the high school code of the football captain dating the head cheerleader.
John also shares the alien's power of levitation and spontaneous urban renewal. How he got this power isn't adequately explained. The aliens have it because they're aliens. John is a human, and therefore, shouldn't acquire powers any more than you or me.
But no matter, we must accept this nonsense, just as we must accept that at midnight, all the humans and their toys fall asleep at the same instant, so that the aliens can come out and play brain salad surgery. This involves giving someone a lifetime of memories simply by injecting them with a syringe. Make mine a double, so I can have a split personality.
People who think this movie is cool rather than merely silly need to take a break from their video games and watch a western, or some other movie where the focus is on characters rather than contrivances. You can spend millions of dollars constructing elaborate sets. But if your best character is a sneaky doctor who oddly pauses every few words while delivering a sentence, maybe you ought to go back to the drawing board.