Spielberg has lost his touch and my respect

Rating: 1/10 (17 July 2005)

I'm a sucker for Sci-fi, for good films and for special effects, and I'd been looking forward to this film for quite a while, so when the day came, I sat my ass down in anticipation as the carpets opened. The first thing i reacted to was the extremely cheap introduction to the film  War of the Worlds in some lousy type with a cheap Adobe Premier Lens flare in the background plus that lousy voice-over.
That aside, as the film progressed, I began to understand that Spielberg and his talent for details and thoroughness are a thing of the past. There is no red-line through this film, there is no peak  this film is just as exciting as watching the flat-line on an EKG. It doesn't even peak once!
The special effects coming out of Amblin Studio are always good-quality stuff, this film is not an exception, if you are one of those who go to the theater to stimulate your craving for just mindless computer graphics, and don't appreciate the story of a good film, then you will probably love this film. But for us people that likes a story, good drama and something that challenges ones mind, this is a waste of time and money.
The film has one or two things that I liked, the lighting was a great job, and the sound was good, but that is where the good stuff ends. The whole production seems half-done and everything seems to have been based around about two thousand explosions, and a couple of really annoying kids (even more annoying than that Jar-Jar guy from Star Wars) who made the film even more unbearable than it already was. Then they've added a sprinkle of some good-old American morale about family values, and the whole experience at the end is so sugar-sweet that if you already weren't diabetic you sure as hell would be one before you've left the theater. I am missing a background story, an explanation to how, why, when, where and who?
I think even Ed Wood would have done a better job out of this book than Spielberg. If you haven't read Wells 'book you will get absolutely nothing out of this film, it an empty shell filled with a few lines and special effects. Steer away!!!