It's really not that good, and you get ill from seeing Cruise's face all that much

Rating: 2/10 (28 June 2005)

I just don't get it ¿how come everybody seems to like this movie? I went to a screening last night and I really thought it was awful. The acting was very mediocre, specially Mr. Cruise's, and the premise was really neglected by his typical "stealing camera" presence. He just can't stand not to be in every single scene.
Warning: there are some spoilers ahead;
There are serious plot holes in this movie -and I mean SERIOUS. Beginning with the aliens, ¿Millions of years, and they weren't aware of bacterias? Come on, how stupid Spielberg think we are??? ¿And which was the alien's idea? ¿Did they even have a plan for destroying the world? I mean, if that was planned by then million years before, they could have tried a little bit harder. ¿Why they bother to chase people inside their houses when they could have just blown the whole town in a couple seconds? ¿How come Boston was all messed up and destroyed, and the kid's grandparents seemed dressed like they were headed to a church party? ¿Why did everybody walked so peacefully and calmed, headed to the same place, instead of hiding or running in circles? I guess that would've been a lot more realistic reaction. But no. All the people did in this movie was walking, headed nowhere.
Aware of that, there were scenes really ridiculous that reminds me of a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon: Tom Cruise and Dakota hiding from a Snake shaped arm of the aliens, in a basement, hiding behind mirrors and stuff. It was so lame! For a minute, I thought they would disguise as statues, like on Scooby Doo, or something like that. Really pitiful.
On the good side, there are some good effects, but most of them show up at the first half of the movie. We don't really get to care about the characters so much (I think much due to the soo loooong time Cruise 's on screen, nobody else got time to develop their roles, nor the kids, nor the mother of the kids, nor the crazy man living in the basement) This aside, I really think Dakota Fanning gives a brilliant performance. The girl is really amazing, you just can't believe that such an actress could be so young. when Dakota cries, everybody cries with her. She is the best in this movie, and the main reason that kept me from giving it 1 star.