Horrible acting, terrible special effects, plot holes a mile wide, and not much a plot to begin with -- I had hoped for some improvement over the first version but there really is none. It's not even very good for laughs.
For just one example, and this won't spoil the plot, the remnant human air force takes off to do battle. For some reason they are all launched initially by remote control from a desktop computer. (I know, I know.) Yet the pilots themselves are all taken by surprise. They don't even realize how they are going to be taking off. Huh? Trying to find something positive to say, some of the scientific dialogue is fairly sophisticated -- branes are mentioned for example. The problem is that it feels tacked on to the pedestrian plot and contributes little. You aren't going to find much in this movie. I'm still waiting to find a modern day War of the Worlds in which people actually credibly fight back. The one with Cruise had good special effects but a pathetic message. This one doesn't even have the special effects.
