Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

Rico says that, fortunately, his ladyfriend made the decision that we were going to watch Knowing last night. It was fortunate because it was fucking awful...
How, you might well ask, could they take a standard science-fiction premise (the aliens come to save us, just in time, from the End of the World), add (photo) Nicholas Cage, Rose Byrne, two cute kids, and a ton of special effects, and come up with a total POS?
Besides being reminiscent of Close Encounters (the 'aliens taking people away' bit) and the classic drop-to-your-knees moment from Apocalypse Now, the movie had too many 'WTF is going on now' moments, too many scenes shot at night, too many long and pointless chase scenes, and too many loose ends (like, why is the world coming to an end?). But, damn, Rico just remembered that Apocalypse Now contains the character whose name resonates ("The horror, the horror") in this election: Willard...