You go most of the movie with this huge buildup of a faceless, overwhelmingly superior in technology, alien force invading Earth in silence. They show up, move to their spots, wait and then start destroying things. It's not till Will Smith shoots one down and punches it in the face you even see one, and even then, it happens so quick with all that smoke, that the first "real reveal" is in the lab when it gets dissected and springs to life. I believe that is close to half of the way through the movie before you see the alien and finally hear it "talk". It's also a shift away from an indestructible alien force to a mortal, defensible invading army. It might not be a huge one, but I feel it's a swing in the plot of the movie.

- MacGyver10