Great until the end

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2005)

I went into this movie with great anticipation and was not let down throughout all but the final three minutes of the movie. Yes there were a couple of plot holes, but overall it was incredible. The score was excellent, Cruise was very good, Dakota Fanning has a big career ahead of her if she keeps acting like this. But above all this Spielberg was in his element. He kept it tense, fast-paced, enough character development to keep it interesting, but not so much as to bore us. He never bothered to question man's existence or anything like that. He was just taking us on a no expense spared thrill ride. I had no idea what would happen next for most of the movie. This had some of the most fantastic camera work, unbelievable effects. All in all i was having a heck of a time. Then they killed the final Alien and walked up that Boston street to find....... the mother and the son both alive. Not only that but they happened to be looking out into the street right as Cruise comes walking up it. After doing about as good a job as a director of a disaster picture can do in avoiding clichés, Spielberg unloaded a giant dumpster of them on the audience in the final minutes. If it had been just Cruise and Fanning, Cruise would have had to become the father he had already started to change into, Fanning would grow to trust him and they would rebuild their life as civilization rebuilds. THat would have been a far superior ending and I would have given this at least a 9 out of 10 without hesitation. But the complete breakdown of holding off Hollywood, even though it only occurred in the final seconds was very disappointing. In any case its still worth seeing, especially on a big screen.