Your child has potential, but he must concentrate

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2005)

It is nice to see a proper film maker in action. He has his ticks and traits, but for the most part the film is a class apart the usual turgid Hollywood rubbish.
The comparison to sleeper terrorists in our midst is clever. The war machines make scary noises, they are familiar and a little steam-punk in nature. We see angles from mirrors, people through glass, lights and scary noises etc. The battle scenes are chaotic and inconclusive. The people are greedy, with occasional acts of kindness. Alien children play where they should not, until recalled to the mother-ship.
But as Cruise looks over the bloody landscape, we can already feel the director longing to move onto a different movie. The film limps to an almost Starship Troopers ending, probably because Spielberg does not know what to do with the license at this point. Its clearly not a project he has spent too much time with.
Its ironic to think that a director will only be careful with the consistency of the content if there is a franchise to protect. Spielberg has given cinema a hell of a lot, but like Lucas, he is maybe getting some indifferent advice from his friends.