Proof that CGI will never compensate for a lousy story.

Rating: 2/10 (1 July 2005)

My wife and I saw this movie the day after it opened and were both thoroughly disappointed. (And before you think we're a couple of geezers who don't like flashy action films, we're both in our mid-20's.) Its plot was completely unoriginal and was basically all told in the first 15 minutes. Aliens have been envious of our planet and have been planning to take it over since before civilization as we knew it. "What were they waiting for?" asked my wife. I still don't know. I think they were waiting for human technology to advance to the point where we could create spectacular computer graphics images to make them look cool, because the ultimate goal of the filmmakers is apparently just to show off what they can do with CGI, without any thought of actually coming up with a good story.
The special effects in this movie are amazing. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing else is. The characters are two-dimensional. Tom Cruise's "kids" are excruciatingly dumb. I haven't read H.G. Wells' book, but I think he would be ashamed to be associated with this project. The storyline is honestly nothing more than 2 hours of Tom and his kids running away from alien invaders while everything around them is being destroyed, and they somehow inexplicably always manage to get away--not through any clever thinking or creative escapes, just through pure dumb luck.
In 1993, Steven Spielberg used computers to bring back dinosaurs to show us just how impressive special effects could be. How ironic that 12 years later, with all the improvements in the technology, he forgets to include the tools that really made his movies great: memorable, well-developed characters; an interesting storyline; adrenalizing suspense; humor... Oh, and the humor! What humor? To add to the agonizingly dull storyline, this movie takes itself way too seriously. I give this movie one star out of five (or a 2 on a 10-point scale), for its complete failure to live up to its potential. Thankfully, JAWS was on TV when I got home, so I was able to remember why we appreciate Spielberg as a filmmaker.
Don't waste your time or money on this film. Go see Batman Begins instead.