Straight to the point "review"

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2005)

I thoroughly enjoyed War of the Worlds, though I know the critics and IMDb junkies will have it torn apart by the end of opening weekend. Spielberg did amazing things with this flick and I was impressed. The casting was great - Dakota Fanning is the most unbelievable little girl. She is amazingly talented. When she screamed, I could feel her terror - when she cried, I just wanted to reach out to her on the screen. She is SO convincing and the movie would be lacking so much without her. Tom is great as Ray, but not because of the reason that I expected. It's because he's just a blue-collar guy trying to protect his kids. There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about his character and I think that's why it worked so well. I wanted to smack Tim Robbins so bad and I think that was the point - he was a great choice for the role. Morgan Freeman as narrator was a nice touch. Yes, there are plot holes (big ones) but the movie is quite entertaining. This was the first movie in a long time that I just sat back and let the special effects fly. I'm really not a big fan of Spielberg in general (ordinarily I just don't care) but the effects in this movie were awesome. The machines look strikingly similar to the old, old comic, so they're a bit cheesy but the stuff going on around them makes up for it ten-fold. There's a scene where Ray is looking for Rachel and comes up over this little hill and the landscape as far as you can see is red from the "extermination" and it is eerily beautiful. It's the Spielberg touch. Go see it - it kicked "arse!"