um...well

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2005)

I had such high expectations for this film, that I guess I should of expected to be disappointed. First off, Tom Cruise and his family really have no back story, and the audience doesn't understand why those spoiled brats who live in a gigantic mansion are so angry all the time. Oh cry me a river that they have to stay with daddy and share the same bedroom...My God! How tragic! I'm not a violent person, but there were times I just wanted to give Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin a good back hand. Sure he might not be the greatest dad in the world, but at least he's trying and doesn't need two snot-nosed children second guessing him at every turn. Can someone explain to me how Justin, survived the gigantic explosion considering how many alien tripods were on the other side...and beat them to Boston? Spare me, it is just industry standard...kids and pets cannot be killed in movies. Why not? A little more realism would be nice. ...Is it just me, or is it not possible to care about these Hollywood movie character's anymore? I mean I didn't give two hoots if Justin Chatwin died or not...Or if Tom Cruise was going to make it...
Lastly, about the ending, I don't think that it was a shortcoming that the aliens all-of-a-sudden die, I believe HG Wells couldn't figure out a way to kill them off and came up with the ham-handed bacteria approach. I mean these aliens are in their tripods...who knows what type of air they breathe, their capsules/tripods would most likely be air tight. I've read the book, watched the original and now the remake, and the endings always suffer.