It's really not as bad as many people here claim

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2005)

I enjoyed this very much and find many of the deeply negative comments here are really exaggerated. I concede there are problems with this film and yes it's pitted with plot holes, some of which irritated me, but it generally overrode these with tension, great visuals and some very good acting.
There isn't anything I can say to add to a description of the plot, pretty much everyone knows what it's about. Spielberg has opted to show everything completely from the main character's point of view and this technique works very well. And it means that some of the usual sci-fi invasion film clichés are mercifully absent, such as the gruff military commanders, stubborn government officials and argumentative scientists, simply because Ray is the focus of the story and he just doesn't encounter any of these people on his travels (though there is a minimal army presence a couple of times).
It also means that we don't get to see too much of the invaders, certainly as far as the machines they travel around in are concerned, as Ray spends most of his time running away from them. Consequently they are not over-used in the action, which makes them very effective. I found them quite unnerving, and the horrible low trumpeting noise they make really stuck in my mind. In fact, the sound effects generally are one of the film's strong points. In one of the scenes where Ray is hiding in a basement we hear them making repetitive mechanical noises but as he (and therefore we) can't see them, we have no idea what they're doing. Comparing this to other alien-invasion films, these alien machines are possibly the most scary and unsettling invaders I've seen. The creatures themselves, I agree with others, aren't so great and should have been kept partially seen at most.
The direction is as slick and skillful as you'd expect and uses a lot of upward shots to give a dizzying perspective of how immense the alien tripods are. The emergence of the first tripod is a terrific scene and very memorable, and Cruise's reactions good to watch. The overall feel of the film is one of unremitting bleakness, even before the invasion begins, save for a smidgen of schmaltz at the end. Disregard any remarks about "post-9/11 references" - yes we briefly see a wall of photos of the missing, but before 9/11 there were films about invasion threats and cities being destroyed, and there will continue to be - it doesn't necessarily have any significance.