Very nearly an art film.

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2005)

Several times during my first viewing of this film (I've seen it twice) I heard myself thinking "This is a nightmare!" I enjoyed the film immensely, so much so that I went the next night for a repeat viewing. After the first show, I started to have a vague theory about Spielberg's intent, but after the second I'm almost certain of it.
This movie is, literally, a nightmare. Ray's (Tom Cruise) nightmare. There isn't one moment in the film that isn't seen from his POV. Not one. After his kids arrive for their visit, he lays down to take a nap. When he wakes up, all hell breaks loose.
The plot of the film unfolds with it's own dream logic (or nightmare logic). When the first tripod throws it's enormous leg out of the pit in the ground, it comes down almost on top of him. Seeking shelter in the ex-wife's new home, an airplane crashes RIGHT ON TOP of the house. In Boston, when the soldiers fire on the ailing tripod, it falls through a building crashing almost on top of them (and Ray). Over and over in this film, events unfold in a way that only happens in nightmares. You run and you run, and still the bad thing chasing you in your dream is RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU. And like nightmares, the thing chasing you is monstrously LARGE (making you tiny in comparison, like a child).
This nightmare COULD be about alien invasion (if that's what scares you). But really, anything could be driving those tripods- The devil, the boogeyman, Osama Bin Laden, death itself. That bizarre horn blast from the tripods could well be Gabriel's trumpet, announcing Armageddon. Frankly, I think the weakest scene in the film is when the aliens enter the basement. They're EXTREMELY well done by ILM, but I think keeping the "evil" in the movie off screen would have been more powerful. Every member of the audience has their own private boogeyman.
Much has been said about the film's plot holes and inconsistencies. The working camcorder after the EMP (how about the running news van able to shoot video after the EMP?). Why are the aliens vaporizing humans when they seemingly need us to fertilize the red weeds? Why does the tripod take the man down to the ground to stab him and suck his blood? IT'S NASTY, THAT'S WHY. The events in the movie make sense the way anybody's nightmare "makes sense". I love the Tim Robbins character. He's the guy in your nightmare oblivious of the "danger" who WON'T SHUT UP, and leads the monster right to you.
Spielberg is a master at subtly texturing the film with a nightmare quality. The sound design is EXCELLENT (that throbbing factory sound throughout the farmhouse basement sequence) and isn't getting mentioned enough in reviews. Here, Spielberg plays to ALL of his strengths. He's always been a "feeler", not a "thinker". This film isn't perfect, but is maybe his 3rd or 4th best effort. This belongs in the same category as David Lynch's "Eraserhead" and Altman's "3 Women", an evocation of the ultimate nightmare. Watch in terror and amazement as Spielberg runs a nail file across your nerve endings for 2 hours.