Bitter

Rating: 3/10 (29 June 2005)

The only parts of the movie I enjoyed, besides the ridiculously amazing special effects courtesy of ILM, were the first 30 seconds and the last 30 secs when Morgan Freeman was narrating. Not only b/c it was Morgan Freeman, but b/c it was the only time I understood what the hell was going on. The first 10-15 minutes were true to the hype about how great of a movie this was. The characters were developing, plots were becoming apparent, the movie was really shaping up. From then on it took a nosedive. Tom Cruise was an average Joe who all of sudden takes on this hero role. He is in control of the situation and is a quick thinker but there are certain things he does that just seem to be uncharacteristic for a person of his background. He is the first one to pick up the broken gravel, he notices meteorological abnormalities, and he somehow has the superhuman agility to avoid the "Death Ray" of the alien invaders as everyone around him is being fried.
There is only one plot and the best way to sum it up is Tom Cruise. There is no parallel story and it could almost seem like the only place this was going on was wherever Tom Cruise went.
What the hell is with his son's desire to fight? And how the hell does his father know about it so fast. Rob tries to get the attention of the passing military and Ray tackles him? The fact that they are the only people in the entire metropolitan area with a car is also fantastical. Cars are full of electronics, and its not just a solenoid that would make it not work. How about the ignition and ecu? and any extras that the mechanic has around would've been fried as well.
The car situation is the focal point of the only other good scene that really brought out some of man's greed and selfishness. When he approaches the ferry and is mobbed, it shows how man has no regard for other humans in the face of fear. The fact that people would pile into a van, crushing a little girl, only to get shot in the end, makes for a very compelling scene that warrants some self reflection.
Some other fantastical parts. The fact that a plane, a goddamn plane people, landed on their house, crushing all the other cars(including a very nice silver Benz)but their van survived unscathed was too much to believe. Then Rob runs towards the battle, again with this unexplainable desire to fight, disappears seconds before a huge fiery blast that looks like the depths of hells, and ends up surviving in the end without any explanation whatsoever. On the topic of surviving, what are the odds of a whole family surviving such a catastrophe? Ray's ex-wife and her parents emerge from their untouched building, without a scratch on them.
Tim Robbins. That part was entirely pointless. He should have been left on the cutting room floor. It wouldn't have made a difference on the outcome of the movie. The extras running through the streets being fried added more to the plot and the overall movie than he did. At first he's helpful and hospitable. Then he's creepy. Next he's a confrontational lunatic. Then he goes nuts, and Ray kills him. That was so unnecessary. There was no moral struggle. It was not life or death. He could've just knocked him out. And Ray walks in unarmed to kill a man who is almost a foot taller and has a shovel in his hands. How does that work out? Dakota was the only good, believable character as Rachel. Occasionally overdone, she was fragile, scared, timid, innocent, she was a true little girl. The scene with the dead bodies in the river was extremely heart wrenching and not b/c of the bodies, but b/c of her reaction and her face.
Saved only by the magic of ILM and the stunning special effects and CGI, the movie was utterly unbelievable. Took way too much of my imagination. It was like a rough draft for a much better version. I never knew what was going on. In comparison to ID4, it comes no where near close. It was a perfect mesh of special effects, blood and gore, storyline, character depth, human struggles and sacrifices, and humor. WOTW fell extremely short in all but one of these categories. A terrible Steven Spielberg movie made bearable by the boys from ILM.
I cant believe I took off from work and wasted an afternoon and $6 to see it after waiting for this day since its announcement in '04.