Better than Independence Day, worse than Minority Report

Rating: 6/10 (6 July 2005)

OK, I was been spoiled for this by a childhood spent listening to Jeff Wayne's musical version of "War of the Worlds". The opening track of that album was always a stand-out for me and I was mildly disappointed that this film didn't use it. Sorry, Morgan Freeman, but Richard Burton's narration beats yours hands down.
Spielberg's film is effective if you've never seen anything like this, or anything by Spielberg, before. If you have, then you'll realise that the kids, and especially the small cute girl, are Spielberg fixtures rather than being part of the original story.
In the end, the weakness of this film isn't the kids, who act convincingly, nor the special effects, which are suitably big-budget. It's the holes in the plot that make it impossible to suspend disbelief enough to believe in the machines. The biggest plot holes come from the shift of context from the book.
(Spoilers start here) How did the machines buried "millions of years ago" manage to end up in the middle of today's major cities? Since Cruise has his family with him, why head for Boston and into trouble instead of running for the unpopulated hills? How come their family's part of Boston was untouched? How did the heat rays keep just missing Cruise & his daughter but hitting everyone else? How on earth did his son survive? And why hadn't the son had a wash before his dad arrived? Where did they find an undamaged gas station for the car? If all electrical equipment was damaged by the lightning, how come the car was fixed just by changing one part? And why wasn't that part damaged? ... a solenoid is a pretty good conductor of electromagnetic radiation, if anything is etc. etc.
(Spoilers end here) It's better than Indepedence Day, and Day After Tomorrow, but Cruise was better in Minority Report. 6 out of 10 for the original story, the special effects, and the reasonable acting. Very few marks for any adaptations to the original story, though.