Plothole bonanza!

Rating: 3/10 (12 July 2005)

This review contains major spoilers, so beware.
Well, now I've seen Spielbergs version of War of the Worlds, and I'm not that impressed. In my view, Spielberg has lost the touch. I can't remember when he last made a good movie. It feels as if he makes films with his left hand nowadays, if you know what I mean. It's sloppy craftsmanship.
The scenes with Scientology-boy and his obnoxious kids are horrible, as if Spielberg directed with concrete mittens. "Subtle" is not the word to use when Spielberg shows what a irresponsible parent Scientology-boy is: He hasn't cleaned his house, there's no food (the only thing in his kitchen is an engine), he throws a baseball way to hard while spending quality time with his obnoxious son, he doesn't know any lullabies, and so on and so forth.
But now to the spoilers: If the aliens have been watching us for a looong time, which is hinted at in the movie, how come they haven't figured out that we have experienced a little thing called "evolution"? Seriously, are you gonna tell me that they've never heard of germs? C'mon. I know germs was the new big thing, the soup du jour, when Well's novel was written in 1898, but today you could expect a little bit more. If you're gonna update the story, and make it into a cuddly relationship drama with a dysfunctional family, instead of the blistering criticism against colonialism and Victorian (white) supremacy which is the original novels intention, you might as well update the story all the way.
Besides, the germ-thing is not very consistent nor rooted in reality. As a previous poster wrote: "A certain percentage of the aliens would be immune to the virus. This was unknown at the time when Wells wrote the book. If these aliens were able to catch a virus in the first place their genetic make up is similar to that of humans or any creature on Earth for that matter and like any creature on Earth some are more susceptible to a virus and then some are naturally immune to the same virus." And what's with the thing on the tripod that tries to suck up Scientology-boy. Was it their intention to make it look like a sphincter? Let me tell you, we were rolling on the floor, laughing. Call me immature, but it looked real funny to me and my girlfriend.
Why was the soldier trying to help Scientology-boy when the giant sphincter tried to devour him? He hadn't done jack sh*t to try and save some of the other people in the basket when they were sucked up by the giant sphincter. He couldn't have seen the hand grenades that Scientology-boy was packing, remember that the soldier first spotted the rings in Scientology-boys hand after the giant sphincter let him go? Although, I would have LOVED to see one thing that wasn't in the movie. How the h*ll did the obnoxious son escape the GIANT, MASSIVE fireball when he runs over the hill??? The special effects look awful in some scenes. The movie looks like a rush job, which probably is explained by the seven month window for production. Some effects are brilliant though. As is the sound.
We had a few laughs watching this movie, which we quite enjoyed as light escapism. It was OK entertainment, but not something I'll bother watching again.