War of the Wrolds or Dumb and Dumber?

Rating: 5/10 (5 December 2005)

I had high hopes for this movie directed by Steven Spielberg. I thought a genius like him would bring some intelligence and credibility to the Science Fiction genre. To my dismay, War of the Worlds was worse than the 1953 version. Tom Cruise does a fair job at acting and the special effects are nice but that is all there is. There is one scene with an alien probe inside a basement that was done very well but that's about it.
Nothing is explained in this movie. After the action there is only a little information on what the aliens want and why they're attacking us to get it. They want human blood to fertilize their plants they brought with them. It would seem that an alien race with enough intelligence to build force fields and space ships would be able to do a few more things. Things like examine what in the blood makes the plants grow and create it, hell if we stupid humans can do this, why can't an advanced space faring race?
Oh and the humans in the movie are pretty stupid too. Well all except for Tim Robins character, a loony survivalist that utters the smartest line in the movie. "They must have weaknesses and we need to find them." Anyone with a lick of sense would see that those things are walking on very long legs and they're hitting the ground. Common sense would tell you the legs aren't protected by shields so shoot them with the tanks and missiles. If they couldn't figure that out at least they could have tried tactical nuclear weapons. But no they were too dumb.
Watch this movie only if you like special effects. Oh, and check your brain at the door.
Rayvyn