Flawlessly directed and filmed; terrifyingly realistic

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2005)

At the time of this writing, the film has been out for about two weeks. Half of the reviewers praise the film as another Spielberg masterpiece; half the reviewers say that there's no heart to the film, and that it's just another simple thriller. I'm somewhere inbetween those two opinions, but if I had to pick one I would choose the first.
Loosely adapted from H.G. Wells' novel, Tom Cruise stars as slacker divorced dad Ray Ferrier. He's spending a weekend with his young daughter (Dakota Fanning) and teenage son (Justin Chatwin), neither of whom are very happy to be with him. Watching a storm brewing with his daughter outside his house, Ray sees a bolt of lightning strike in the same place - twenty-six times. Within the next forty minutes, the world is under attack by aliens who are considerably less friendly than those depicted in director Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
Tom Cruise gives one of his best performances, really bringing the character of Ray Ferrier to life and making him someone we can sympathize with. Dakota Fanning is outstanding, as always. Tim Robbins has a brief, but enjoyable part. Though the kids really drove me up the wall for the first part of the film, about halfway through you start to feel for them.
One the film's highlights (no surprise here) is Steven Spielberg's directing. With anyone else, this film would be quite a bit lesser. There are some examples of truly masterful directing in this film. Fans of Spielberg's other movies will likely notice a few of his trademark moves, particularly in a scene somewhat reminiscent of "Jurassic Park".
David Koepp's script is well-written, despite little or no relation to the novel which it takes its name from. Interestingly, one of the film's lesser points is John Williams' score! The usually extraordinary composer has come up with nothing especially exciting or original. Something which is exciting and original is the special effects, which are some of the very best to appear on-screen for a while.
One of the things which makes this film so great is how terrifyingly realistic it is. As I was watching this film, I was thinking, "This is creepy - this is exactly how humans would react if this actually happened." Another interesting point of the film is the eerie similarity between the events of this film and the events of the Holocaust. Spielberg has said that this is intentional.
All in all, I think "War of the Worlds" is a fine effort from Spielberg, though unshockingly not on par with many of his other projects. You'll have to see the film for yourself to decide what you think.