Spielberg does it again!

Rating: 4/10 (4 July 2005)

Make a blockbuster hit that has no reason to be one, I mean.
When I heard that War of the Worlds was being made into a movie, I was sincerely happy. Of course, then I hear that Tommy Cruise is going to be in it and it will be directed by Steven Spielberg. Hoh boy. Bad gets worse.
Out of sheer boredom, I drag myself to the theater and plop down seven bucks to see something that I really could have done without. The movie was decent, in a general sense, when you average all of the terrible scenes with all of the really good scenes. The film had plot holes, but that's not anything to base an argument on. What we're looking for is good writing, which this movie lacked.
Through the entire hour and fifty minutes it played, I felt as if I was going to have a heart attack from all of the tension that was running through my body. "Oh noes! The Walker just came out of the ground! Where are they going to go? Oh noes! The aliens are attacking the ferry! Oh noes! The arm's coming around the doorway and it's twofeetinfrontofthegirl! Aaa!" Give me a break. If keeping the audience so absolutely afraid of everything going on is reason enough to make a good movie, then this one was fabulous.
I actually underestimated Tom Cruise, but not by much. He matured as an actor, and was certainly better than when he was in 'Minority Report', yet another superbly amazing Spielberg hit. Tom didn't have time to flash his grin much when he's supposed to be running in terror and keeping after two kids who are incredibly disobedient in a crisis situation. Tim Robbins I expected to be much better than just some random crazy that Tom Cruise kills to save his daughter from being exposed to such awful things as "We're being exterminated!" The only truly good actor was, in fact, an actress: Miranda Otto. Boy, can she carry a scene! So underused, though, sadly.
After the initial craziness of the Walker coming out of the ground, the action literally doesn't stop there. It goes on and on, but with little breaks, and then back again, so the audience can't forget that this is a scary movie. The truly underrated actors were the aliens themselves. I kept hoping for more of the scene in the basement when the aliens are looking at the pictures, giving us a glimpse into the alien psyche for just a fleeting moment. The movie plods along after that: Tom and Dakota get kidnapped, escape, and make it to Boston, somehow. There, Tom looks at a statue and decides, out of nowhere it seems, that the aliens are dying. How'd you reach that decision, Tommy? No, really. The fact that the aliens are allergic to our planet doesn't really get explained entirely until the very, very end when the Narrator busts in to unconfuse the audience. Until that time we have to sit and wonder why in the world the Walkers keep wobbling around.
All in all, the movie was a decent try for an adaptation of the novel by H. G. Wells, but fell short very early on. Too much action, too little aliens . . . hmm, sounds familiar. Independence Day, anyone? No, not to that extent, but it got close. Close enough for the movie not to be much of anything, despite how much a lot of people tried.