I liked how the story begins with how the whole invasion began. They should have spent more time on this. As a matter of fact, this should have been a worldwide view of how humanity failed against the invasion. Instead, you get a story that at times makes you wonder if you missed something (on the pier especially). Also, the son appears to have gotten stupid since the first movie. The ending is rather contrived. With all the periods of silence in the movie and the style of showing two or three parts of the story all intermingled at once, you get very aware of the director "doing something". It weakens the film. The ending is so contrived that you think....."say whattttt". The characters' decisions in this movie make for many plot holes where their actions in the original are not something you question. So is the sequel how they get the daughter's discovery out there, If you can believe no one else figured this out. For that matter, I wondered how this type of creature can create and fly a spaceship. Do they multiply here? Were they kicked off a planet like Alien Nation? These creatures don't seem to have intelligence, organization or government. It's like the dinosaurs figured out how to build a spaceship and fly through space. The movie grossed about $350 million so there will be an unnecessary sequel. Watch a movie called "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers" from the mid-1950s and you will see the same "discovery" on how to kill the monsters.