Mindless screen writing at it's best. (SPOILERS)

Rating: 3/10 (3 July 2005)

Here is a classic case of many talented people and hundreds of millions of dollars being put into a movie, and the end result is mediocre at best because of idiotic screen writing and plot holes that somehow evaded everyone involved with the films production but seems obvious by many of the people paying to see the film, like myself.
I won't bother with a long review of the film, I will just point out the rampant stupidity. Sure, the CGI effects are impressive, the Tripods are intimidating and there is some decent action, but it takes more than that to make a good movie.
SPOILERS AHEAD: Okay, my biggest gripe is the screenwriters deciding to completely change how the Martians invade Earth. H.G. Wells vision of the invasion was fine, and the original film got it right. How does this new invasion mess things up? Simple. They decide to have it go like this: The Martians came here before (no real time is given, except for one crazy character who says it was "millions" of years ago) and buried the Tripods underground. Then, when they decide to invade, they send lightning down to Earth, which knocks out the power to surrounding areas and transports the Martians (inside little coffins) into the Tripods who then activate them. Later on, the Martians die due to bacteria, water, food etc. That part is fine, since that is how they die in the book. But what makes this film stupid is, if they all die from our bacteria etc., then when they came here before to bury the Tripods, why didn't they die THEN? And how did humans NEVER detect the Tripods underground? And what about the ships that sent the Martians down in the lightning? Why didn't we detect them? There must have been quite a few of them considering Tripods appeared all over the world. I noticed all these plot holes as soon as they appeared on screen. How did the films screenwriters, editors and director miss them? Why couldn't they have left it the way it was in the novel? If you're going to change things from the book, at least change them so it makes sense.
Like I said, mindless screen writing at it's best. Sigh.