I Don't Understand

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2005)

I truly, truly, truly do not understand the disdain so many people have for this movie! There are those who say that there are major plot holes, that Tim Robbins' Ogilvy is your standard "the world is coming to an end paranoid"; that (SPOILER AHEAD) Robbie's surviving and the pristine safety of the family at the end sucked.
Ogilvy and Robbie's fate ARE IN THE ORIGINAL NOVEL. Whatever you may think of that, your issue is with H.G. Wells, not Spielberg. I don't understand how so many people can praise crap like "Van Helsing" and "Bubba Ho-Tep" but when someone comes along with a true vision, he sucks because he didn't achieve perfection. If anything, we should hold these hack directors like Paul W.S. Anderson, Uwe Boll, and Stephen Sommers to higher standards, and give leeway to the masters.
Thirdly, to those who say Spielberg's references to the Holocaust, the War on Terror ("Occupation never works"), and the 9/11 attacks trivializes them, I offer this: why are you watching this? Science Fiction has always been a conduit for discussing subjects that people might otherwise not respond to. If you want a serious, dramatic, factual representation of all of these events, you probably don't want to see a movie about aliens (from another world).
I'm disappointed that no one can appreciate the technical skill, the directorial mastery, the performances (you must at least admit that everyone gave it their best shot) and the overall masterwork that this is. Stop expecting him to top Raiders or Jurassic Park, you Nimrods. He has exceeded the level of even one of his idols, David Lean. He is an undisputed master.