Solid, with some exceptional moments

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2012)

Spielberg uproots HG Wells' story of a Martian invasion and transplants it from the 19th to the early 21st century. In doing this, he hooks it onto the back of a story about not-very-competent Dad Ray (Tom Cruise) trying to get his children, terrified Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and alienated (sorry!) Robbie (Justin Chatwin) across country to his ex-wife.
This film is full of action - eye-popping, awesome action - but it never loses touch with the human story beneath, of Ray trying to do the best for his children in impossible circumstances and while doing so, gradually becoming a better father.
Rooting the film in this way means that we care for the characters, which means that the death, destruction and devastation has that much more impact. There are several astonishing set pieces - the initial attack, the ferry, the basement sequence - but my preference was for what I thought of as the Spielberg touches: the bodies in the river, the clothes raining in the woods and, especially, the lengthy shot with a moving camera circling a speeding car as they flee the city.
All the performances are good, with Dakota Fanning being exceptional.