Steven Spielberg can do better

Rating: 6/10 (14 July 2005)

I was so looking forward to seeing this movie. A Steven Spielberg movie, means a lot of meaningful entertainment...not the rubbish we usually get which are excuses in the name of entertainment, or so i thought. For, though not the 'rubbish' i mentioned earlier, the movie is nowhere near Spielberg's standards. The movie starts with an introduction of how humans have stayed totally ignorant to the fact that they are being watched by extra-terrestrials always. Then, it moves from an intriguing introduction to the highly uninteresting character of Tom Cruise. He is a father who has to tend for his two kids, who have no particular liking for him. His ex-wife(who is pregnant with the kid of her next husband)is off to Boston to be with her parents and leaves the children(the elder one looks like cruise's younger brother)with Cruise. Then suddenly all hell breaks loose and a weird storm takes over the place. Tom Cruise who goes to the heart of the city to investigate is in for a surprise. Sinister machines emerge from the ground and start zapping people all over. I must admit. These bits are extremely well done and Spielberg's genius, absent in the rest of the film, shows here. And then, Cruise, one of the lucky survivors, reaches home and takes his kids to their mother, the reason for which, i'm yet to decipher. He takes the only car that works(since everything stops working due to electromagnetic impulses). I think Cruise's car worked because it was a solar charged battery or something. I missed that bit.The rest of the movie has no story that can be put in words. It's just action and the action does work in most of the places. It is good, but not great...not something that made my jaws drop or anything. Just good enough to keep you engaged.
Well, that's the story. Now, the positive points of the movie. Good action sequences...especially an initial storm sequence and the fist attack by the alien machines. Stunning visual effects. The aliens were done creatively. That's it. The negative points now. An extremely unintelligent screenplay which is determined to push the patience of the audience beyond endurance. Tom Cruise is one of the most ungifted actors i've seen. Dakota Fanning is totally wasted. She seems to have had a bet with her friend about how many ear drums she can destroy in the cinema hall, for that's all that she does. She screams throughout the film. The main problems of the movie is that the story of this father trying to save his kids is extremely poorly done. It could have been shown in a much better way, but Spielberg fails at this dismally. Last but not least, THE CLIMAX! I'm sorry to be saying this, but this movie has one of the worst climaxes ever. The movie drags in the last half an hour and then the climax happens even before you realise it's come. One of the persons who had come with me to the cinema said this about the movie:"All's worse that ends worse."
I think that makes complete sense in case of this film.