Still wondering...

Rating: 5/10 (9 August 2005)

Steven Spielberg is amazing in how he can make some of the greatest movies, but also produce such dogs. War of the Worlds has some great special effects, but in the end it is maddening in that so much of the flick leaves you unsatisfied.
I won't go into the many plot holes so many have talked about (e. g, how the son can show up at the end of the movie completely unscathed). Rather, there were two small moments that set up possibilities and then didn't deliver. The first is when Tom Cruise and his neighbors are gathered around the crater in their street. Cruise picks up a piece of the asphalt to examine it. He says it feels cold; he then places it into his jacket pocket. Normally, this is a foreshadowing cue; he is doing this for a reason, and the promise is that somewhere later in the movie, that piece of asphalt will come in handy in some clever way. But it doesn't make another appearance. So this scene was completely unnecessary; him putting the rock into his pocket does not make any sense.
The other time is when Cruise and Tim Robbins are trying to elude a snake-like creature in Robbins' basement. Suddenly Robbins appears with an axe and is about to rain blows down upon the creature. But at the last second, Cruise stops him and silently mouths words (that the audience doesn't understand) to get Robbins to put down the axe. Ahah! Cruise must have some sort of ingenious backup plan! Can't wait to see what it is!
But there is no backup plan. We are never given the reason for him stopping Robbins from killing the alien. Just another scene that makes no sense. Steve! You're killin' me! I love ya babe but you're killin' me!