Fun invasion movie

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2010)

Spielberg's War of the Worlds seems to split people right down the middle, half the people like it, half the people don't. And if you don't like this movie, I can totally understand why. But personally, I really, really like this movie, and would actually put it as one of my favorite Spielberg movies, ranking up there with Jurassic Park and E.T.
Now like I said, this movie is not perfect, there are quite a number of plot holes, some right in front of your face that are hard to ignore (how did they film the lightning storm if the lightning caused all electricity to go out.) Racheal can be very annoying at times. Half the time she is screaming, and the other half she talks like an adult. And some people may not like the fact that the film takes place in present day New Jersey and not London in the late 1800s like in the book. Well personally I don't mind this, and the reason is to show that the greatest power in the world can't defend themselves against the aliens.
Personally I just find this movie to be a lot of fun. The action and special effects are amazing. The scene where the tripod comes out of the ground has some of the best special effects I've ever seen. The acting is good, Tom Cruise really plays an average American dad very well. I like how we follow an average family as this happens, and not the military. If we followed the military then it would have been too much like Independence Day. And it does a good job of using post 9/11 fear to make dust and debris scary, even though Cloverfield would do it better three years later.
War of the Worlds is just a plain fun disaster sci-fi movie. It isn't perfect, but it didn't need to be, it's a fun movie with great action and effects, good acting, and enough of a plot to get you through it's two hour running time.