Not bad at all

Rating: 9/10 (28 June 2005)

Spoilers below! OK, this is as good interpretation of the HG Wells book. It's far,far better than the first film attempt (with Gene Barry).
Great effects, which for once don't get in the way of the story. I was expecting to see a Spielberg version of Independence Day, with lots of fighting against the invaders, kind of a "Saving Private Ryan vs the Martians".
The alien machines were simply awesome,well realised and the suggestions of the battles in the distance, and the noises were very chilling.
When the main character kills the Tim Robbins character, it shows the desperation that Tom has reached in order to keep his surviving child alive. This was surprisingly good characterisation by the writer, director, and I have to say, Tom Cruise.
Worth having on DVD when it comes out.
OK. Now for the gripes.
1: The alien machines were planted millions of years ago in the ground. What, we never spotted them, none at all? Far fetched.
2: The heat ray effects were great, and Spielberg showed us bodies flying apart, several times over.Seems like he enjoyed doing that. But when it came to showing the needle going in from the machines and sucking up the blood, he chickened out and decided to be discreet. Not that I was particularly interested in seeing blood being sucked out of people, but the reluctance to show it stood out like a sore thumb.
3: There was no logical reason whatsoever for the son to survive. The audience had accepted that he died, but Spielberg just HAD to have the happy reunion in the end. Which denied the pathos that he had built up. The Tom Cruise character had shown he was flawed, was capable of making mistakes, and didn't have all the answers. Leaving the kid dead would just have been more real somehow. No explanation of how he survived, when the entire hilltop went up in masses of flame.
Having said that, the scene where his son says "you have to let me go, I have to see this" was kind of like Tom accepting that his son was a grown man, and adult. Very poignant, but bringing the kid back? Dumb, and spoiled the poignancy.
Ignore the flaws, go and see it and enjoy it.