Thank goodness for DVD and Fast Forward

Rating: 3/10 (21 November 2005)

The War of the Worlds is a great book. For its time it was a tremendous leap in imagination; the story of humankind brought to its knees by a technologically superior alien invader told through the eyes of an unnamed observer.
The War of the Worlds (1953) was an interesting adaptation, re-locating the story to the USA and providing a slightly more human backdrop to the futility with which the human race battles the invaders.
The War of the Worlds (2005) is a great piece of commercial film making. It's the story of a dysfunctional family incidentally set against the backdrop of some sort of conflict. It allows the stars to show off their huge acting skills with lots and lots of close ups, oh and there are some special effects as well. It contains all the necessary commercial ingredients, two major box office stars, kids, and a heart-warming ending. Unfortunately it seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with telling the story of the War of the Worlds.
Please! I thought we'd stopped making star vehicles but obviously not. Fortunately I rented it on DVD and could skip the bits which were boring, mainly any time Cruise was on the screen, oops, that's 99% of the film!
Not even worth the rental.