Somewhat engaging but ultimately pointless remake with Evil E.T., P.C., and sci-fi horror for the modern dysfunctional family...

Rating: 3/10 (1 July 2005)

Let's just break it down in simple terms. Steven Spielberg, with the rare exceptions of a few films like Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, and even AI, makes ephemeral thrill-ride movies with reasonably happy endings.
War of the Worlds is no different. This film is a throwback to the early Spielberg of Jaws, Close Encounters, and E.T., which were marvelously filmed, vacuous, and quasi-plot less masterpieces that were at least tolerable enough to sit through with a bag of popcorn. Spielberg, like his contemporary George Lucas, has taken the Dino De Laurentis model and just animated it more with computers. They can't provide, process, or direct a script, but man can they throw up a busy screen full of non-stop action. Josh Friedman, the screenplay writer, does nothing to improve Spielberg's track record this time either.
I am not going to recount either the H.G. Wells book, the Byron Haskin 1953 movie adaptation, or the dumb late-1980s syndicated show. You know the drill. The retelling of this version, however, involves watching the invasion through the eyes of a dysfunctional working class father, played by Tom Cruise, his married-up-from-her-first mistake ex-wife, played by Miranda Otto, his teen-son-on-the-verge-of-recklessness, played by Justin Chatwin, and the precocious-but-claustrophobic younger sister, played by Dakota Fanning. We are immersed quickly into the problems and interplay of the children of divorce with their parents, and quite frankly, that is the only redeeming feature of this film. Sadly for the viewer, the aliens arrive to screw up the interplay, and we quickly are immersed in the "Aliens-vs.-Earthings" gig that we have all seen countless times (particularly if one is over 35). This film could have been about how a disinterested father gradually grows to understand and appreciate his kids under the heat of adversity, but Spielberg never quite takes us there. Instead, Spielberg tries to make subtle statements against war and even self-defense with Cruise and Chatwin, and again with Tim Robbins and Cruise when trapped underneath an alien lair. I won't give away what happens, but clearly Spielberg takes the pacifist view (and the anti-patriot view in this reviewer's opinion with the outcome, which angered me quite frankly). Whether this was Spielberg's cut against the Iraq War or militia movements or something else in some subtle way is debatable, but it isn't particularly subtle or interesting in its conclusion. Perhaps Jimmy Carter was an uncredited script editor (and don't his eyes look a little alien?).
What really ticked me off about this film is that we are led to a battlefield scene between the aliens and the good 'ol U.S. Army, but we never get to see it! I think this is a cruel commercial manipulation by Mr. Spielberg to release a director's cut DVD with all the scenes in it, assuming this film flops at the box office. What he does not realize, if this is the case is that true sci-fi special effects junkies WANT TO SEE THAT ON THE BIG SCREEN, and not on the LCD at home, even if it's a big screen. I am not certain that I would rent the DVD if those scenes are included for that reason alone. Why cheat us out of what most alien invasion movie aficionados really want; a kick-butt battle between the good guys and the bad guys?
The special effects are dazzling, no doubt, but the only redeeming feature of the plot which never quite satisfies us is the masterful acting of Dakota Fanning. She plays to the camera and to her co-stars with a subtle brilliance that reminds of both of the ingénue of Drew Barrymore in E.T. and the early works of Jodie Foster. Her portrayal of the claustrophobic daughter is very believable and unforced, even when the script seems to take her off course a bit. If she matures in much the way that Jodie Foster has, she will have one heck of an acting career ahead of her.
At any rate, unless you just want to burn two hours and ten bucks in a syrup-coated seat, this is not worth going to see. If Spielberg still wants to buy his forty-one-thousandth Lamborghini and he decides to put the directors cut ON THE SCREEN and WITH ALL THE BATTLE SCENES, then one might be persuaded to see it there. Otherwise, I am not even certain that I would rent this thing. However, if you are bored or if you have a naïve (or surreptitiously naïve) date who wants to grab hold of you during all the scary scenes, then rent the DVD. Those kinds of cheap thrills are the only ones worth sitting though the entire length of Spielberg's War of the Worlds to actually experience.
I give this 3 out of 10 stars, but just barely 3.