They may have a point: This film was universally reviled as one of the worst movies on 2012. Bad writing, cheesy acting, plot holiness, painfully contrived attempt to connect to the board game-- it's all there and every bad thing said is pretty much true.
Nevertheless: The big budget effects are there on the screen, and some of them are pretty awesome. Admit it-- you saw the trailers and before you heard the movie stunk, you wanted to go see it based just on giant ships and armory aliens and destruction and mayhem, and the movie delivers all of those things in spades. There is plenty of visual spectacle here.
The characters may be cardboard (plucky woman, plucky black character, plucky large breasts, immature jerk-ish guy who must grow up and be a Real Man-- check, check, check, and check). And there's Liam Neesom, phoning it in from his car while he drives his check to the bank. But hey-- Neesom knows cheesy movies (seen Darkman lately) and still has more gravitas in his little finger than most actors have in their whole bodies on a good day.
The plot is weak, but not actually stupid. It sets rules and plays by them. And it is charmingly unironic in its love of soldiers and sailors and their general grunt-like heroics. So you get spectacle, dashing good-guys, unobjectionable lessons (try hard, be honorable, don't be a dick), and some decent adventure. If you saw it on Sci-Fi on a Saturday night, you'd think it was the best thing to ever appear in that time slot. Yeah-- if I'd paid top dollar to see it in a theater in 3D, I might be cheesed. But it will work just fine as a netflix rental.
