The Terminal now this.......Spielberg has lost it

Rating: 4/10 (1 July 2005)

Having listened to the positive early reviews I was really looking forward to War of the Worlds. I was hoping to see Spielberg back on form with his "bad" alien movie. We'll " bad" is the current word because the first act aside this movie stank and showcased all of Speilbergs loss of independent vision as here he is really pandering to the popcorn munchers.
The movie opens well, and its encouraging to see Armageddon play out in the eyes of one family, although this is not an original concept (see "Signs") and Mels family were moderately likable. Here we are subjected to the teenage son who inexplicably wants to rumble with indestructible death machines and a horrible screaming banshee of a daughter. Speakig of Mel Gibson, Mr Spielberg must have been influenced by the Passion of Christ when he decided to kill a key character in the second act only to bring him back from the dead for the sickly sweet family friendly ending. Do not believe those who say this is Speilbergs darkest work. Such was the ineptness of the direction the audience were laughing a the site of hundreds of dead bodies being washed down river.
The aliens, don't make me laugh. In ET and Close Encounters Spielberg gave the audience several hints at the aliens appearance...a hand here, a foot there.....building up the tension (yes even in ET) before revealing his creature. Not in this movie. After 10 seconds of stumbling around in Tim Robbins cellar there they are in full view and boy do they look awful. Possibly the worst aliens ever consigned to film. We're supposed to be scared of these things! And the ending.......oh yes the ending. Yes I know how the aliens fail in their attempt to exterminate mankind, I've read the book and seen the old b-movie (which was better) but it was like....."oh my god we're all going to die"....."oh wait a second no we're not, hurray"....THE END.
As a final downer, how did Tom Cruise manage to magic several grenades from his butt the moment his daughter was in danger? I'll stop my rant here. I used to be a real Spielberg fan and Jaws is still my no. 1 movie but this is garbage made for the popcorn munching PG cinema zombie. But it will make a lot of money and the studio will pay for more of this rubbish to be made.
4 out of 10. 1 for the tripods, 1 for the noise they make, 1 for the opening act and 1 for being better than the Terminal.