A personal survival story

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2005)

I thought this was a much better story than a lot of the other alien invasion stories of the past several years. You're not overburdened with a lot of technical jargon and scenes of generals and Presidents in situation rooms planning strategies. It's also not about jet fighter pilots or other military men taking these aliens out. It's simply the story of a father (Cruise) heavily focused on the survival of his two kids. His kids are the overriding concern here, not how to fight these aliens, finding out who they are, and why they're doing this, etc. He's a father that will do everything in his power to make sure nothing happens to his kids, and he'll go to great lengths to make sure nothing happens to them.
Kudos to Spielberg for resisting the urge to turn this into a grand heroic adventure (like Independence Day), and keeping it on a personal level. In a way it was similar to M. Knight Shymalon's Signs, but Signs was not nearly as scary as this.
Tim Robbins shows up to make a cameo as a creepy survivor, which Tom Cruise and family meet up with halfway through the movie. Morgan Freeman also shows up as the narrator of the movie.