With great expectations comes disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2006)

Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a divorced father, who is taking care of his two kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) for the weekend, when strange occurrences like lightning storms and blackouts pave the way for a full-scale alien invasion.
If I had to describe War of the Worlds in one word it would be disappointing. It was a pretty good summer blockbuster but you would expect so much more from Spielberg and Cruise. It did get a lot of things right though. The special effects are amazing and the 132 million dollar budget was put to good use. There were plenty of moments of suspense and fun to be found here as well. The film was scary because it felt so realistic. It was just handled so well and Spielberg did a great job at that. He really knows how to build suspense and create a nice, spooky atmosphere.
The acting wasn't as strong as everything else though. Tom Cruise gives an okay performance but he was a little annoying. Dakota Fanning redefined over the top with her performance. It just felt so forced and unconvincing. She usually is a pretty good actress but here she was really unbearable. Justin Chatwin was somehow even worse and his performance was very annoying. I was kind of disappointed to see him survive at the end of the movie. Tim Robbins deserves a Razzie (no that's not a hyperbole) for his incredibly bad performance. It was hard to tell if he was actually joking or not. Miranda Otto appears in the film for about 15 minutes but after watching The Flight of the Phoenix, that's probably a good thing.
While Spielberg does a good job with most of the film, he stumbles badly at the end. The ending was too Hollywood and unrealistic. Up until that point, the film was pretty realistic but the ending killed that realism completely. The movie could have been better if it didn't have such a happy ending. The only thing that was missing was Ray (Cruise) getting back together with his wife. The second half of the movie isn't as strong as the first half either. There were a lot of dull moments that slowed down the film. Also, the movie doesn't have a very good repeat value. It's worth watching once and that's pretty much it, well for me anyways. In the end, I will always remember War of the Worlds as a good disappointing film and as a missed opportunity. Rating 7/10