Good direction, terrible to watch

Rating: 4/10 (23 July 2006)

This post will contain spoilers, because I have to give examples on how and what I think is bad in this film.
To start with something; the direction, acting and effects are wonderful, but that's all. Spielberg's preview and trailer promised us a film that deserved the world WAR in the title. But there was no war.
The first mistake is Tom Cruise. He was supposed to be a jerk, which explains why his kids don't like him. Obviously Spielberg chose him not because of his ability to be a jerk, but because they're friends. From the start to the end, Cruise was a hero, mostly unintended. Nobody can fix a car, but he can. Nobody sees the birds on the tripods, but he can. Tim Robbins is way stronger, but Cruise can beat him.
Even worse than those moments are the family problems. Though the movie is called War of the WORLDS, it's all about the constant yapping of Dakota Fanning against daddy. Worse, she bounces from a yapping brat to a kid who talks as if she's 30 years old. This changed the genre from action/war/sf to drama. Good acting is important, but the drama dominated the movie.
I will NOT explain how the movie ended. I can however say that somewhere in the middle something 'terrible' happens. And everybody who can spell 'Spielberg' and 'cliche' knows now how it ends. If all of the above mentioned problems were forgiven, the ending'd still ruin the whole movie. I left the cinema being disappointed. I miss Spielberg's old work, Jaws, Duel, Indiana Jones, etc.