Spielberg's unique touch, *contains spoilers*

Rating: 3/10 (21 August 2005)

War of the Worlds is uniquely Spielberg. He is one of few directors who could make alien invasion so visually stunning but he is also the only director who could turn such a catastrophic global event into a household melodrama.
This film is at its best when it explores the impact of such a tragic event upon the helpless victims. The scene in which Ray Ferrier (Cruise) and his two kids are mobbed as they drive towards the ferry and the subsequent scene in which masses of people lead a desperate scramble to get on the ferry are truly dark and explore the survivalist instincts exhibited by people in the face of sheer hopelessness.
But this doesn't last and ultimately the invasion seems far from terrifying as it becomes a means by which bungling dad Ray can rediscover his parental touch and 'grow' as a person. When you add to this a cringeworthy appearance by Tim Robbins, seemingly reprising the village idiot character he created for Mystic River, War of the Worlds just descends into the absurd.
The underlying sense of calm throughout the movie, despite the havoc and chaos all around is capped off when Ray and daughter Rachel (annoyingly portrayed by latest movie brat Dakota Fanning) arrive in a seemingly undisturbed Boston street to be greeted by Ray's ex-wife and her family. They emerge from a perfect townhouse totally unperturbed, as if they had merely been watching all the events unfold alongside us and that there never had been any real danger in the first place.
This all adds a great sense of anti-climax to an already thoroughly disappointing movie. Morgan Freeman's voice-over is typically life-affirming and acts as a laughable clearing up device after a terribly abrupt ending. It seems that once Spielberg had finished creating his aliens, the movie became a secondary thought, an annoyance to be dealt with. Had he kept focus on the invasion and the terrifying effects of such an unfathomable event, there may have been a movie here but as it stands, there is just a collection of cheap visual thrills and not a lot else.