Tom Cruise is the only good part. That's it.

Rating: 4/10 (28 December 2018)

I was really looking forward to finally watching this and I then after the credits rolled, I felt let down.
I was astonished about how different from the book it was. A contemporary re-telling can work as long as you don't do it wrong. It's such a shame really.
Tom Cruise did the best with what he was given even though by this time in his life, he married Katie Holmes, became a dad and started jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch on live TV. Although much of the characterisation of many of the other characters is a bit boring. Dakota Fanning can't stop screaming, Justin Chatwin is a typical teenager and Tom Cruise is struggling to keep his marriage together.
The ending is also lacklustre and anti-climatic. But there are many elements of HG Wells' novel that are used like the sinking of the ship (though not a battleship and not called "Thunderchild" for some reason), the red weed, the blackbirds and the Autumn leaves blowing when Tom and Dakota return home.
Also, the Martian tripods in this are not called Martians. They've been under the Earth before man... really, Spielberg?
So it pains for me to say it. This is a bad adaptation of HG Wells' classic and also one of Spielberg's weakest movies. It's become clear to me that Spielberg over the years is not as good at making movies as he once was, which makes me dread Indiana Jones 5 which still has no title and has not yet been filmed.
My only wish for War of the Worlds is that we finally get a movie adaptation of Jeff Wayne's musical version. That would be amazing.