Aliens invade earth for the umpteenth time etc., etc...

Rating: 2/10 (11 December 2005)

Entertainment is supposed to be entertaining. One imagines that Spielberg and Company had some free time in their busy schedule and decided to quickly remake a perfectly good film. The original movie, made in 1953, diverges from the book by H.G. Wells but is still a great movie with a great script, filmed in beautiful color and populated with interesting characters who act out the story in an unpredictable fashion. Even the special effects are superb.
The new version is closer to the book but lacks color and the ending is not only predictable but dull. I kept hoping that the aliens would win because the earthlings behaved so stupidly. Every time Cruise tells his son or daughter not to wander off, I knew that they would wander off and cause him great grief, which they continually did.
The music score by John Williams is forgettable. The casting is uninspired, the acting is wooden, the characters poorly written and the over-all tone of the movie is dark and dirty and depressing, not entertaining in the least.
The story is not completely thought out, the special effects are disappointing and the aliens do not get adequate screen time. Many aspects of this film appear to be borrowed from a number of other sci-fi movies.
I think that a lot of women really like Cruise because they find him physically attractive, but as an actor he lacks the ability to project emotion. Dakota Fanning is equally over rated and cries throughout the film until eventually I just wished she'd be eaten by the aliens, who may or may not be from Mars. Justin Chatwin, who plays Cruise's son, does not integrate well into the cast, vanishes a little over half way through the film, and is assumed to have been killed only to miraculously reappear at the end of the film, no explanations offered.
In my humble opinion the only indication that Spielberg had a hand in making this movie is his name in the credits.