Spielberg's alienation

Rating: 4/10 (12 July 2005)

Steven Spielberg is a great filmmaker for kids. He knows how to entertain and simplify stories and bring them suspense,drama and action without a lot of seriousness or complexity. The problem is that Spielberg never seemed to grow up from his traditional method of movie-making. Even when he made The Color Purple and Schindler's List, the subject matter may have been serious but Spielberg seemed to wimp out on some of the graphic content that was necessary for the subject. War of the Worlds is by no means a "grown up" movie but Spielberg's maturity as a director nonetheless has declined. He refuses to escape the obvious cliché's, the paper thin characters with no depth, the overblown orchestral Williams score that is used to spell out every emotional scene telling you how to think and feel. Die hard Spielberg fans might see this as nit-picky and granted, a lot of people like roller coasters but I want a little more meaning and thought put into the ride. About one hour after the movie and the special effects had worn off on me, I wondered "what was the point of this film? Why did the aliens wait until now to attack? Why did they look like robots and stand on three legs as if they fell out of an Ed Wood movie?" Mr. Spielberg, we need a little more sophistication because your audience is a lot smarter then you may think.