Aliens do not mess with Grandma

Rating: 4/10 (13 March 2007)

Spoiler -Spoiler I was excited about a movie taking a micro look at the invasion of Earth by aliens. Spielberg draws us into the terror of an invasion by focusing on one family's survival. However, one problem the movie had was I never really liked Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) or his son Robbie Ferrier. By the end of the movie Rachel Ferrier (Dakota Fanning) was beginning to annoy me (always screaming at a bad time and strangely silent when some one is looking for her).
In Spielberg's version of H.G. Wells' tale the aliens have buried tens of thousands of 10-story 'tripods' (think Star Wars' Imperial Walkers) all over the world million of years ago. The tripods have waited to be 'awaken' by lighting bolts. The aliens ride the lighting bolts down under ground into the buried tripods. In the initial sequence it looked like it was buried 30-50 feet (but lets say 100 feet for yuks), in one of the boroughs of New York. Considering how much we like to dig holes in our planet I find it hard to believe that these enormous vehicles remain undetected all over the world for the millions of years or even for one year. I would have thought Spielberg would have abandoned this approach for the original; it would take up too much film time to explain why the ignorant earthlings have not stumbled upon on any alien vessels yet (which by the way was never explained).
While this is going on, everyone is sticking around to see what is going to come out of the ground. It seems more logical that many people would be running the other way, but for the sake of a bloody massacre let's just assume that New Yorkers are fearless.
Some one thought up a gimmick of watching the destruction that one of the tripods makes by means of some one recording it with a camcorder, however this was after the electromagnetic pulse that takes out all electrical devices. Spielberg allows this; although the footage that is taken is not used anywhere else in the story and therefore superfluous.
Our hero takes his kids out of New York to go find their mother at Grandma's house in Boston. On a New England country side, the military engages the aliens, once again everyone is running towards the skirmish instead of away.
The movie changes gears when Robbie Ferrier 'has to see' the battle (again a fearless New Yorker). We are left with Ray and Rachel who end up hiding in an ambulance drivers' (Tim Robbins) basement. I am OK with this, the movie comes down to a very personal level of cat and mouse. The aliens eventually take Ray and Rachel prisoner and we find out that the alien tripods are using human beings as fuel and there is A LOT of blood as exhaust. As a single adult, I pay little mind to the MPAA rating. But PG-13 is light for the amount of blood there is.
Finally defeating a tripod, Ray and Rachel are back on track to Boston. Apparently every one has family in Boston because everyone is going towards the city. We witness the ultimate demise of the aliens and make it to Grandma's townhouse in Boston, despite the very urban setting of Grandma's house (possibly down the block from Cheers), the entire block remains unscathed. The aliens apparently know not to mess with Grandma.
The entire extended family emerges out of the house on queue for Ray and Rachel's arrival and what do we discover? Robbie survived and beats them there! Hugs all around.
With all the liberties that Spielberg took with the original work, he still decided to use Well's original 1898 ending. After 107 years of technological advancement the ending is less believable, a new twist would have been welcomed.
Here is the real dilemma; the movie is not worth the price of admission but a 32- inch TV will not due the special-effects justice.