An intense disaster movie with action, horror and heart. (SPOILERS)

Rating: 8/10 (29 June 2005)

SPOILERS!!!! (Don't read unless want to know what happens).
WAR OF THE WORLDS sucks you in from the get-go and leaves you terror-stricken and captivated for its entirety. It's been commented on before and it's worth mentioning again that this movie will make you think about what you might do during an alien invasion. Through Cruise's eyes you are right there in the middle of the action as the Tripods arrive and start their extermination. We see the Tripods surface and annihilate, then later search for survivors, whom they pluck and cage before using as fertilizer. The prologue with Freeman's narration is slick and sets the tone perfectly, remarking how oblivious we can be to global change.
Some reviews call some exchanges between Tom and his kids too "touchy-feely", but to me those moments played very realistic--I believed that the characters would behave in such ways during an unthinkable crisis.
I don't have any problems with the ending. That the aliens ultimately found our planet inhospitable was the most believable way to wrap things up. Sure, they had planned on the take-over for millenniums but there were microscopic factors they didn't count on. That solution is better to me than the humans suddenly figuring out some alien Achilles Heel.
Coolest parts: 1. Tom getting the movie's first good look at one of the walking Tripods as he hides behind a house.
2. Tom's ex seeing Tom carrying Dakota down the street, back to her.
3. Our one-side view of a military battle with the Tripods. Tanks, men with bazookas and missile-shooting helicopters charge over a hill. After massive explosions the Tripods emerge from behind the hill w/ out a scratch.
Thoroughly entertaining.