Good action but I felt no connection to the characters

Rating: 4/10 (15 July 2005)

That's what happens when you sacrifice action for story. I love Spielberg, but this movie is not up to the standards and attention to detail that I have come to expect from a Spielberg movie. I saw the 1953 version and feel it was superior to this. The special effects from1953 were truly "special" especially when you consider it was 1953. This new movie had a lot of action and some great effects, but the story was so full of holes it took away from what should have been a great experience. To list my problems with this movie
1. First off all power is out and nothing electrical can run yet a guy is able to video the action with his camcorder 2. Loser father Ray is the only person able to figure out how to get a car running. 3. The alien walking tripod death machines. The 1953 floating ships and the sounds they would make far scarier. 4. Airplane crash takes out the neighborhood, but not the house Ray and family are in or their car. 5. Meeting up with the Tim Robbins character and Ray having to kill him to save his family only to have them discovered by the aliens minutes later. Pointless! The whole Tim Robbins piece could have been left out. 6. Everyone meets up at grandma and grandpas house, where it seems none of the alien activity has affected them. 7. This was probably most annoying. The reappearance at the end of the "I'm sure we saw him die earlier" son at the grandparent's house. Guess we needed that to give us that feel good ending. No one believed the son could have survived as we had seen him head over a hill into a huge explosion. No explanation was given and he appeared spotless. 8. Dakato Fanning's screaming throughout the movie. Very annoying.
See the original