Truly Underrated

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2019)

From my point of view this is the best adaptation the War of the Worlds franchise has ever seen. I don't understand the sheer amount of negative criticism this film has accumulated since its release, I'm not saying it is a without flaw, definitely not. But to me it's clear that the positives outweigh the negatives.
Firstly the camera work is stunning. Throughout the film the composition of shots and the cinematography is to be admired, no matter how much you dislike War of The Worlds you must recognise that it is a good looking film. My favourite scene -which presents the camera work at its best- is when our three main characters are in the car, the tension is at its peek here, the camera is sliding in and out of the windows echoing the unease of the situation. I recall there not being a single cut, it is truly beautiful to watch.
Some say the CGI doesn't hold up, I can agree with this statement in some occasions, for example when the Aliens leave their Tri Pods (towards the ending of act 2 and the film's resolution) they do not fit in with the rest of the scenery. In some cases the CGI is a bit too ambitious for its time which can subtract from the realism, however overall I think they did a great job on the key set pieces.
I have also heard complaints on acting. Bad child acting is to be expected although I do believe the child they casted to play Tom Cruise's daughter could have been a lot worse, her over reliance on screaming can be quite irritating at some points however. Tom Cruise does as well as he usually does, he shows his character's desperation very well, specifically when his daughter is in danger.
I still to this day do not understand how Tom Cruise's son survived that explosion within the midpoint of the second act. He shows up right at the ending and I think it would have made much more sense for them to have killed him off, it is just way too unbelievable that he could have possibly survived that explosion, if someone could explain to me their own theory then that would be much appreciated. One more thing which puzzled me is that the aliens had the tools at their hands to create almost impenetrable force fields, however the actual outer casing of their Tri Pods can be completely blown apart with one RPG shot.
In conclusion this film is much to under appreciated and I wish more people would give it a chance as it is very enjoyable. I do recommend you watch this.