a master filmmaker loves humanity but won't trust us

Rating: 8/10 (29 June 2005)

Steven Spielberg is a master movie maker, and in his hands this vicious assault of a film is poised, artful, and eminently accessible. His mastery of the form surpasses the best work of other directors of summer blockbusters, with seemingly little effort.
Spielberg understands, as few do, what reality actually looks like. He shows us our cities and towns as we see them, yet also understands the audience's guilty catharsis in watching our own destruction. This power of observation grounds the special effects and spreads a stomach churning haze of believability like a pall over this film.
Computer generated special effects are still an immature technology, however, and even in the hands of this gifted filmmaker they occasionally overpower the visual imagery. The falling objects invariably explode too closely to the main character, distracting us from the otherwise believable imagery.
Spielberg has always made expansive films that reach out to everyone equally. His vision of film as mass entertainment always pushes the line between art and commerce. Unlike the stylish but mean spirited movies that other directors attack us with, he cares about humanity, and his films ultimately attempt to connect us to each other and the perilous beauty of our condition on this planet.
The only flaw of this movie, as with so many of Spielberg's other offerings, is a tragic inability to trust the intellect of his audience. Spielberg understands movies, and Spielberg understands art. But Spielberg will always be afraid to make a film that is truly art, that has the emotional and narrative complexity to appeal to that inner sense we all have of how art transforms our perceptions of ourselves and the human condition. Spielberg is a master of the visual realm, and understands how imagery affects emotion like few do. He cannot, however, release control of the puppet strings and allow us to think for ourselves. This film, like his others to date, are tantalizing cultural showpieces that fail as works of art.