Surprisingly good!

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2005)

Over the past several years I've come to dread the release of Spielberg films. The man has created some wonderful stuff - "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Jaws" - and yet has created some truly awful junk too - "A.I.", started out so well and yet smelled up the theater by the awful and merciful end... On the other hand, H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds" had a tremendous influence on me as a kid - got me truly interested in astronomy *and* reading. Wells' image of the Martian tripods towering over the English landscape has stayed with me ever since. So imagine my mixture of excitement and trepidation to learn that Spielberg was filming "War of the Worlds", starring Tom Cruise. Would it be another "Jaws"... or another "Minority Report" crap-fest... Just saw "War of the Worlds" tonight - and it is truly great! Yes, the setting has been changed from 1895 England to modern-day New Jersey. Yet much of Wells' story remains intact... trapped in the ruined house, creepy alien wailing ("Ulla ulla ulla..."), and of course those fantastic tripod fighting machines! The acting was also quite good. Tom Cruise may be an ass in real life, but I must say that his single-dad character came off as quite sympathetic to me (Hmmm... what does that say about *my* character, eh?) Loved this movie.