The master lets us down one more time

Rating: 3/10 (13 July 2005)

An unfortunate day in movie history. I was excited to see how Spielberg would handle the literary classic and to his credit, there's much to like visually, but the story is trite, weakly directed, and takes on no measure of import or excitement. Some scenes are dry and drawn out, others have such glaringly pointless plot devices that it hardly supports its own gigantic weight. Tom Cruise is exactly as he should be, a decent actor playing the role given to him, but the things he says, the feelings he's asked to emote, simply childish. There was more believability to Independence Day. If that doesn't draw a parallel, I don't know what will. The explanations are weak, the meandering script shows none of the tautness of Close Encounters, and on the whole I was left tired of watching after a half hour and wishing a tripod would stomp into the theater and end my suffering.