This film contains everything that is wrong in Hollywood.

Rating: 1/10 (10 January 2010)

This film contains everything that is wrong with Hollywood.
Take a superb book by H.G.Wells, remove 90% of the plot and content and replace it with a trite drama between Cruise and his ex-wife, next add some low grade special effects and there you have this film. The book starts with a quiet silent visitation watched in terror by a lone person as he sees the ray gun destroy everything in its path. Hollywood starts with an almighty special effects sequence with the usual running and screaming and all the other CGI junk that is used to replace a good story line.
The book ended with reports of how the ministry of defence tried to harness the power of the alien ray guns, Hollywood ends with a hackneyed tearful reunion of Cruise's family.
In-between we have some glaring errors, Cruise has the only working car in town that is blown to bits but there is a convenient path left between all the debris for him to drive through. Everybody's electrical items are disabled by the aliens (including watches,) but curiously video cameras and recorders are still working. This idea was done much better in an episode of The Invaders. Cruise's son is obviously blown apart in the conflict but miraculously shows up later on.
It is also amazing that with the huge budget they had the aliens still looking like they were borrowed from a computer game. Anybody who has watched Kill Bill will know how good special effects can be if they are done without the aid of a PC.
Disappointing – a missed opportunity.