Well....(shrug)

Rating: 3/10 (10 July 2005)

I just watched WOTW last night, and Spielberg does his job of completely drawing you into what you're looking at (I checked the tree tops first-thing when I came out of Jurassic Park), I loved the CGI, the cast chosen and of course the action involved and was totally ready to give it a 10 all the way, but then I started reading the other reviews for the film here, and had to actually reconsider what was so great about it.
I have NEVER had to do that with a Spielberg movie--he gives us a fun or incredible story, great characters and side-kicks, and I'm either leaving the theater extremely satisfied or (in the case of Shindler's List & The Color Purple) mopping my face. I always fall into a Spielberg movie ready to go and believe whatever he throws at me because it's always something that's going to work itself out perfectly or justly by the end credits. It's always flawless or fun.
And I DID feel okay about WOTW at the end (not wildly excited, but I knew I wouldn't lose any sleep over it), but the reviewers here made me realize quite a bit that was off, blatantly sloppy or something in between.
And I'd like to give my husband credit for wrapping up Tom's character, and I guess the movie itself, in one sentence: "Tom likes to run around and look at stuff." Yep, that covers everybody in the film. (except the daughter...she just likes to play Mother Figure and guilt people into hearing her) I find it bizarre as well as sad that that's all there was to him, although I must confess I thought the car scene when he's trying to calmly argue with his shrieking daughter was a class act...and that of course HAD to be acting, because it seems that there isn't a parent alive that wouldn't start rummaging around for something on the dashboard to swat her with by then.
But the daughter was interesting for an old soul, and Mom wasn't used enough, the son felt more like a hangnail than an actual family member (he could have been out of the script entirely and it wouldn't have changed anything, except that maybe the daughter might have been the one scrambling to see the show on the hill (as if the screaming, the military, smoking inferno and general chaos didn't give enough of a clue). And I was rather ticked that sonny boy showed up in Boston, I think that because they didn't suffer a personal loss makes it as UN-Spielberg as it can get. And the fact that Mom floated down the stairs of a mint-condition brownstone was exceedingly annoying!! That, and I couldn't stand the idea that these aliens would actually take the time to look in the basement of one house...would they seriously do that with each one? Don't think so.
Basically the reviewer "Ali_Catterall" nailed the flaws perfectly, and with just the right amount of venom. LOL (Titled: "No one would have believed/ 28 June 2005). Check it out, it's absolutely hysterical!
Basically, if you're only into visuals, this is a fantastic film and you'll get an eye-full, but if you're going for a cohesive storyline and reasonable motivation, I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere.