so so so disappointing!

Rating: 4/10 (4 July 2005)

I thought this would be a nice film, for this I had a couple of reasons:
1. Steven Spielberg 2. The name: War of the Worlds 3. All the commotion and advertisement, even the trailer did it for me 4. Tom Cruise 5. See "1"
What a disappointment this was this afternoon.. The film starts basic, like all films they first introduce the main characters and give you a peak in their normal life, but as my friend quoted: "never change a winning team". The first action, the first storm, I liked this part because of the thrill it caused on the main character, at first no fear, only thrill. This shows some of the feeling that People have, "there cannot be major threads near me". So they just watched en got entertained. This was one of the parts I liked. Then you notice the special-effects, astonishing! But than, you see what comes from under the ground (what hes been there for million years... waiting for now), it is too earthly.. Humans could have, and can build something that looks like that: the "Tripods" (the name everybody suddenly knows and uses). They could and should have been more creative.
Now the film actually starts and there is blasting and running everywhere. After a couple of scenes you really begin to wonder, "Why are they killing everybody!?" No one really knows that actually... Maybe we find out later... One really good and psychological scene follows...
The trio (not the tripod) go by car, one of the only cars that still works... When it gets crowded bye people who go by foot, you already knows this will not end steady... And it doesn't. This scene shows that it could also lead to some kind of civil war but it doesn't. I do not know if that's disappointing..
Another good scene is where Ray beats up Ogilvy.
That were the only two good scenes really..
But we still don't know who "they" are and why "they" are on the earth slaughtering everyone. They need human blood to fertilize the ground for those plants.. but it is all very vague. And why do they attack us now. Why do they suddenly die?
Very vague... again...
In short: Nice action, astonishing special-effects, good acting, no clue, lack of creativity on both machines and aliens, really bad information on story. Too bad for Steven!