Intense if not scary.

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2006)

By far Spielberg's best effort in a long time. War of the Worlds in a way felt like a cross between his two films that he made in 1993, Jurassic Park and Schindlers List. The aliens with their low, resonating hum and death rays that turns people into dust are as impressive if not more scary than those dinosaurs from the park. As well the feeling of hopelessness I experienced as I viewed the people in this film fight to stay alive was something similar I felt when I viewed those black and white scenes of Germans executing Jews. Plus there were those scenes of horror stricken people fleeing that were similar to what was viewed for real on 9/11. Bottom line, this movie should have you at the edge of your seat.
Even though this is science fiction, it is HG Wells who was a remarkable writer who wrote as much for entertainment as he did to express his concern for the progress of the human condition in mondern times. Plus Spielberg has a talent for adding weight to the most frivolous of action scenes. Even though this film had lasers and explosions, you knew this film was not about such things but about humans in times of crisis.
I'm not necessarily 100% sold on the films portrayal on the dark nature of the human condition when people are facing such peril. 9/11 showed us people could come together but to be fair we have also seen in such a short amount of time how this nation once again has turned on itself. Plus this film also pits all of humanity against the forces of extinction which is something incalculable or impossible to foresee accurately; therefore, Spielberg's presentation of a dark and raw struggle to stay alive is quite plausible if not realistic.
There are some minor questions that any viewer may come up with when watching this film if you get wrapped up in the logic of science fiction. For instance why did it take the aliens a million years to strike and how come they didn't know about bacteria if they are such an advanced species. My answer to those questions are not to answer them but to simply except them as the events of a science fiction plot. Plus there is a bigger point about the bacteria than science has to offer. That point is stated in the wonderful prologue at the end of the movie, "God in his infinite wisdom..." Some things in life man can not control and it is at such times of peril and/or devastation that man must reach beyond his own projections of what he can do and cling to hope and faith.