Spielberg... where are you taking us?

Rating: 3/10 (2 July 2005)

I think it may have been wise for Spielberg to stop making alien movies after ET.
Apart from the entertaining special effects, the movie was a real let down. But this is the problem with creating a movie that deals with some sort of global apocalypse or end of the world situation, too many plot holes are created, and the audience is simply expected to swallow whatever crap the director is trying to feed you.
As soon as the aliens begin to attack, the movie gives the viewer a feeling of hopelessness, which can be good or bad, depending on where the plot takes you. But in the case of WOTW, this is bad... really bad. Here you have these 200 ft tripod aliens sweeping the earth of people while protected by some sort of invisible shield, thereby eliminating any form of human defense. For 90 minutes, the characters are hiding and running, then hiding and running some more. The audience never understands why the aliens are attacking, what they want, where they came from etc. Instead, humans choose not to survive or defend, but to rather outrun the thousands of giant laser armed alien tripod things. However these attacking aliens, as intelligent and superior as they are, somehow fail to escape the awesome forces of microscopic earth bacteria, which takes them by surprise and kills them all on the spot, but not before they vomit some sort of tomato soup looking stuff. I guess the aliens never thought to check that stuff before investing millions of years in planning an attack on Earth, but hey, aliens can make mistakes sometimes too. I mean, E.T. missed his ship home, didn't he? Morgan Freeman's 30 second speech at the end leaves the viewer with a pretty bad taste in the mouth, not to mention Tom manages to get to Boston somehow on no food or bathroom breaks to deliver his screaming child to her mother and family. And how perfect was it to see them all walk out of their beautiful brownstone city home, looking like they just finished eating brunch, completely oblivious and unscathed by the crap that is going on outside. Also, the runaway son also appears from out of the house after abandoning his family because he wanted to see all of army/alien spectacle first hand. But of course, Spielberg could never allow one of his main characters die... he has to come back in the end and satisfy the audience.
But hey, I guess you cant blame Spielberg for all of this. This is just the stuff that annoys movie buffs when doing a movie about the end of the world. Too many holes, too little explanation and development, too much guessing for the audience.
I am surprised to see that the film is only rated PG-13, although when people are killed by alien lasers they just sort of turn to dust, rather than spew blood and guts... which might have made the movie a little more entertaining. The movie could have used a little more Tim Robbins, and A LOT less Tom Cruise... realistically, Jerry Maguire isn't going to save anyone from anything.
War of the Worlds will definitely be considered a flop in Spielberg's catalog. The special effects and Tim Robbins give it enough juice for a 3/10.