Disappointing, but Not Regrettable

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2005)

Like many sci-fi movies, this one starts out with a simple introduction. It relates humans to tiny bacteria that aliens have studied in detachment for centuries, showing tiny bacteria and a dew drop the size of the world. The deep voice and cliché lines, however, don't promise much. Although the graphics were very nice, I found the whole lead-in to be over-dramatic and overdone, and it reminded me of a 'gripping' nature program's introduction.
The beginning of the movie, however, held some promise. The relationship between the members of this distanced family was very well done, in my opinion. Robbie acts like any normal teenager these days. Ray Ferrier is not your role-model dad, but there is one thing to keep in mind: he loves his children, and that is all the parental know-how he needs in this movie. I found that Rachel's character became annoying after a while. She became the innocent girl being stained by the horrible destruction around her, and instead of developing in the movie, she only ends up changing her attitude from bratty to scared to pieces -- a little too predictable and shallow. But her relationship with Robbie made up for a lot of that: I felt my own heart twinge every time she leaped out of her father's arms into those of her brother. You could see the pain in Ray's eyes, too.
With the family dynamics set up, it was time for the action to begin. I have to admit, the graphics were well done. Spielburg had some interesting ways of portraying the madness. At one point, for example, you only see reflections of the alien machine: on windshields, in a camcorder, and on store windows. The fact that the church was cracked in half, I found, was a good choice. A metaphor? Perhaps, but in any case, interesting. Yet all the cracking and rumble became extremely redundant throughout the movie. After a while you simply got too used to seeing buildings reduced to rubble. But then again, this whole movie was about the earth being destroyed, wasn't it?
It is not until halfway through the movie that you get a glance of the faces of destruction: the aliens. To be honest? I started to laugh when I saw them. They looked like crosses between E.T. and three-toed frogs. They didn't command any fear with their big bug eyes and the way they toyed with a bicycle in the basement. This is the face of the aliens that would exterminate mankind? I would've liked to adopt one.
The way that Spielburg avoided giving you too much information on their genius, however, was wonderful. I would've been disappointed if they had actually showed the insides of the tripods. Holding enough mystery to excite you, the machines of destruction held a secrecy that was terrifying in itself. The fact that you couldn't see what was happening half the time, I thought, was one of the scariest points of the entire movie. The fact that only clothes were left was also very nice. They weren't enough to churn your stomach, but at least it wasn't something overdone like body parts falling from the sky. The blood-colored vines, I thought, was a nice touch, even though Spielburg may have gone into the cliché "blood-soaked war" idea too much. The part with the mob and the car, however, was both gripping and brilliant. As was Ray's murder to the melody of a lullaby; that was beautiful.
The overall movie was not scary, though. Every time the camera focused on a window, I tensed and expected to see something burst through with a horrible screech. But that never happened. In fact, the tension in the movie was drawn-out and at some times boring. The part with the alien eye lurking around the basement, for example, probably took fifteen minutes of the movie when it shouldn't have taken half that long. It moves, they hide. It moves, they hide. We get it. Can we move on, please?
And thus we come to the worst weakness of the entire movie: plot. Survival is a kind of movie that has to be carefully planned out, so that it's eighty percent skill and twenty percent luck. This movie, however, was purely luck. They narrowly escape every time because of alien sloppiness or the fact that there just happened to be grenades in the trunk of an abandoned car. News reporters just happen to start explaining to him things about the aliens for no reason. Robbie miraculously ends up at his mother's house.
It was the conclusion that was without a doubt the most disappointing part of the movie. It turned out that it wasn't human warfare that killed the invading aliens, but instead bacteria. It's a realistic concept, but it only came in the last five minutes of the movie. Before then, there's no reasoning whatsoever. These aliens randomly show up and start exterminating people, and just as quickly, a deep voice says that the bacteria have killed them all and that's the end of the movie. It was far too rushed for such a drawn-out path of destruction, and it left me hanging in my seat, staring at the credits and thinking: that's it?
Despite the disappointment I felt in this movie, I don't regret watching it. It's not an edge-of-your-seat heart-gripping thriller and drama, but it's an okay movie for a vacant night. I walked away without the heavy burden you feel after watching a deep or horrifying film. There is one thing you can learn about the power of parental love -- oh, but that's only if you actually want to think during this movie.