Intense

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2005)

I saw this just last night and I wasn't expecting much. I guess I sort of expected it to be a cheap (when I say cheap I mean lame) disaster flick with over-the-top special effects and bad acting. Having said that, the special effects, at times, were a bit over-the-top and the acting did get pretty bad in some points. The ending was not that good either. But the first hour or so of the film made up for any discrepancies.
I won't go into terrible detail with the plot. Guy not very good father, guy deals with troublesome teenage son and scared daughter. Aliens attack his home, guy and family flee to find mom in other city, lots of chaos, aliens unpredictable, etc. The film gets into the action pretty quick and the scenes of them running through the city getting vaporized by the machines and trying to leave on the ferry are particularly intense. The film is even more frightening because these aliens are ridiculously meticulous about their killing (as opposed to the aliens in Independence Day who just seem to blow up cities, these aliens are checking out every last farmhouse in the country for trace of life).
The film still has its faults. Tom Cruise isn't very convincing in his part, neither is Justin Chatwin as the son. What was the point in casting Miranda Otto in such a worthless role? Tim Robbins and Dakota Fanning probably give off the best performances. There are probably numerous problems with the aliens and their method of invasion but the only thing I can gripe about is their design is too close the aliens in Independence Day for comfort. The ending felt rushed and anticlimactic. But the tripods and such were really great and Spielberg totally captured the mass panic of an invasion while still keeping the focus on one family's dilemma.
Overall, 7/10