Mixed feelings about this one

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2005)

Steven Spielberg's new thriller, The War of the Worlds, is all together a very interesting movie. Steven does indeed deliver a high octane, fast paced, special effects extravaganza, but after the first hour or so the movie takes a more disturbing turn. The first hour of the movie was funny, scary, and very believable, even with the continuity mess-ups (like the video camera working when the aliens had blown out all electronic systems). Tom Cruise performs his role as a divorced father struggling for the love of his children very well, and you will be able to forgive him for the recent bad publicity. Even more amazing is the acting of young actress, Dakota Fanning, who despite her age possesses the traits of a well experienced actress. She succeeds in playing a small girl with certain psychological phobias such as intense claustrophobia.
The first hour of War of the Worlds follows this format: The aliens land in a freak lightning storm, the humans are confused. The aliens activate their cumbersome tripod death walkers buried under millions of years of dirt, the humans are now very scared and extremely confused. The aliens begin to destroy the city and vaporize the humans, who, in turn, run around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. The rest is a lot of running, dramatic screaming, and explosions, coupled with very good cinematography. This part of the movie will not disappoint the audience, and you might even get interested in where all this will go, which isn't anywhere very good.
The Second half, however, fails to produce any real solution to the problem, which is hundreds (possibly thousands)of the alien tripods destroying life as we know it. The movie takes a very interesting, but highly unsuccessful turn, when Tom and his daughter run to seek safety in Tim Robbin's basement. Robbins ,at first, seems set on sitting and hiding, he says something to the effect of "No one who runs will live." Yet, later he seems to think the best method of solving the problem is to destroy the tripods, who have conveniently congregated over his home, from underneath, via tunnels or the subway system. Tim Robbins' character is actually quite disturbing and very well portrayed, but he might be the downfall of the movie. The movie continues to become more unbelievable when you discover the aliens are sucking the humans' blood and then covering the earth in red vein like systems with the blood in them. Tim Robbins then goes insane and the rest is history.
The conclusion of the movie comes like a brick in the face, and nothing is really resolved, though some aliens are dead, their tripods destroyed. It fails to put the audience at ease. Yet somehow, throughout the tumult and chaos and continuity mistakes, the movie is redeemed by the first hour, which had been promising to develop in a completely different way. After you see this movie reflect on how the second half was an honest mistake that any one could have made, and it won't seem so bad, which it isn't.