The dumbing down of America reaches Spielberg -

Rating: 4/10 (10 July 2005)

I never thought I would be this disappointed in a Spielberg film - but this film is a bloody mess -
Visuals - yes Spielberg is a master there - but in this high tech world we expect more and more of "special effects" and I just didn't think most of this was that special. Some great scenes technically and visually yes - but most of it became mundane and underwhelming.
If it weren't for Dakota Fanning, I would want the invaders to win by the end of this film, or at least to make her their new queen. So many heavy handed moments of processing "family stuff" albeit minus an "On Golden Pond" soundtrack were just too much for me. Style sans substance?
speaking of audio - maybe thats one of the missing elements here - the lack of scary sounds from the aliens made it much less terrifying than the film's predecessors - a little death ray or juicy chomping now and then would have made it much more suspenseful as well -
Two lamest parts of the film (NOTE SPOILER WARNING)for me were: A)with most of the world being sans power and with your neighbors being harvested or blown away at any given moment, some folks still had time to fire up their scanners and printers (and generators?)to make all those nice 9/11-esque missing person flyers - all neatly displayed for those similarly less than panicked masses to stop and notice? B)for the final dose of "family values" and class warfare, the blue collar hero brings the girl child back to the Bostonians (oblivious to their impending demise as they stand around in cashmere and khakis - almost like a merlot commercial or something), and miracle two - the other child survived too and actually hugs teary Tom and calls him DAD - but it's still not enuf to get him an invite into the townhouse, alas.