...but I so wanted to like it.

Rating: 3/10 (2 July 2005)

The CGI was incredible and Dakota Fanning was amazing but they couldn't cover up the holes that simple reason left in this story.
I understand that this is a sci-fi adventure and thus it requires a bit more "suspension of disbelief" than the normal story but I found that I just couldn't do it. The very first thing that pulled me out of the movie was use of the disembodied narrator used to set the scene for us.
At first it was because I was excited, I hadn't realized Morgan Freeman was in the cast. My excitement quickly turned sour as it became that he wasn't in the film, he was just there to let us know we were watching a film where the earth was unaware an attack was coming by an unforeseen alien menace because, apparently, we were not able to grasp it on our own...from the title... and the hundreds of times we had been exposed to the ads. Sure I realize I may grasp mundane, painfully obvious details better than most but I didn't think that this was something that needed covering. When the disembodied narrator (God..? no, wait I'm thinking of Bruce Almighty) spoke up at the end of the movie I understood why he was there: someone needed to be able to combine a three minute scene that would have explained what happened into a few lines.
Watching War of the Worlds was like watching a Saturday Night Live skit that started strong but leaves us disappointed because we realize they couldn't figure out an ending (you likah dah juice? dah juice eeze goodah). Of course I don't spend five dollars on SNL (matinee) and they don't have a $130 million dollar budget. The idea that keeps coming back to me, and that bothers the most, is that some people may miss out on seeing better movies because they decided to see this one instead. Please, save your money and your time. If you need to see it wait for the DVD. NOTHING will be lost by seeing it on the small screen.