Hmmmm, me thinks they lost the plot.

Rating: 3/10 (14 July 2005)

OK so Mr Spielberg can do great things with sfx and Tom Cruise is good at running around. Therefor it is a good job that this was all the movie was about, I mean apart from 5 minutes of set up at the beginning and half a minute of mushy stuff at the end the entire movie was Tom Cruise + kid(s) running away and hiding from tripods. Spectacular I'll grant you but this film really didn't have much else to offer apart from a poor attempt at drama for about 10 minutes somewhere amongst this total bore.
If you want an all out action movie whilst your brain is cooling in the fridge sit down and watch this movie - trust me, your brain will thank you for letting it not watch this pile of tripe. It might be good looking rubbish but however you dress it up, no matter how much expensive glitter and channel number 5 you put on it, it's still just a big pile of garbage.
So what's the plot? Who knows? Is there one? OK I think it goes:
1. Martians attack earth and try to wipe out humanity, 2. man runs away from Martian machines with kids, 3. man hides with kids, martians find man and kids, 4. man runs away some more, 5. martians find him again, 6. man looses one kid whilst running away some more, 7. man is helped by other man into new hiding place, 8. other man is a grade A nut case (understandable since he just lost his whole family), 9. martians find man and co again, 10. man and co hide, 11. man and nut case have fight - man 1 nut case 0, 12. man runs away again, 13. martians capture man and kid, 14. man escapes by blowing up machine, 15. man and kid run away some more, 16. Martians catch the flu and die, 17. man and kid find mummy and kid who apparently died turns up with no explanation at all about what happened to him, 18. hugs all round - Que credits.
There, I've saved you the bother of wasting your time with this crappy re-hashing of a great idea. Mr Spielberg please, please retire. I'm begging you.