I didn't see the point

Rating: 3/10 (6 July 2005)

Maybe it was Tom Cruise's recent antics in the media, but I really had no desire to see this movie to begin with. After seeing it, I have to say... I was right.
I'm a fan of the original, and since the story was pretty much unchanged, the only thing this version had over the original is modern special effects. The special effects were OK, most of the movie seemed to be shot outside, so the natural light was a nice change from all of the cgi lighting of recent films. SFX aside, the story was kind of flat. Tom Cruise is no great actor to begin with, and this film did nothing to disprove that. He comes off more as an older brother then father, but maybe that's the point.
I also have to say that ever since he reedited E.T., that Steven Spielberg's films don't have the same influence on me as they once did. A.I., Minority Report, and now War of the Worlds, all signs of a great director no longer great. (not to deny that Spielberg wasn't great he was at one time, that time is long gone)
A lot of the scenes in this movie reminded me of Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks". The way the tripods moved, they way they attacked humans, seemed almost comical at times. It also didn't help that for the most part nobody acted like the world was under attack. It seemed more like they were fleeing a hurricane or tornado. There were some interesting morality plays but for the most part the movie was just uninteresting.
Overall, I just wasn't impressed. Maybe I've come to expect more out of a movie as hyped as this, but after having to suffer through Tom Cruise's "I'm crazy" tour, I almost feel like the studio owes me for the time and money I spent on seeing this film.
$10.75 + 20 minutes of ads, + 2 hours of bad film = wait for the DVD.