No, not like Europe.

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2005)

You get terrifying grand spectacle in the beginning and Spielberg's lens tries to pan away from the terror as if it's afraid of the tripods. But there are beautiful establishing shots such as that when the first tripod appears or the one that was coming from the woods when in the scene when they are on the barge. Beautiful shot of the Digital 8 camera LCD seeing the terror by the way. Some breathtaking cliffhangers, courtesy of Koepp who has always been a master of cliffhanger sequences - the one in the basement is handled well by Spielberg although we've seen something like it in the kitchen in Jurassic Park. We get a chance to be very intimate with the antagonistic appendage, - our characters are obstructed just by a mirror. And we also get some tension and conflict with some of the characters, Robbie and Ray. I thought the scene of what Dakota Fanning finds when she was supposed to relieve herself was wicked, and beautifully shot. By the way, Fanning almost steals the show, at a young age she can deliver an above par performance of a terrified little girl. See the look on her face when she's captured in the basket somewhat disoriented and it takes Cruise some time to snap her out of it, almost as if she's prone to autism.
It would seem the only way the arcs were made possible is because of the tragic events that have been taking place in the movie. I wanted more, it almost seemed that the action that have defined the characters reconciling with each other was a big, noisy contrivance. Nonetheless, it has more of it's moments like Tim Robbins and Cruise looking at the carnage being caused by the tripods from the basement and it's definitely got a lot of tension. I felt awkward with the TELL DON'T SHOW ending even if what narrator Morgan Freeman tells us can be slightly touching - "Human beings don't live and die in vain". But don't mind my rants here, don't even take my word for it regarding my praises. Just go see this. And I won't look! Just stay where I can see you! Nope. Not like from Europe.