Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2005)

Like the child I was in 1954 when I first saw War of the Worlds at my local theater, I awaited with great excitement the return of the movie that most affected my childhood. I had previously seen a UFO and seriously believed that an invasion could happen. That movie scared me so badly I couldn't sleep for days without frequently looking out my bedroom window expecting to see the tripods! I instead this time fall asleep counting the flaws in this movie. I expected this time around, after 51 years, really creative ways to scare the hell out of us. I wondered how Spielberg was going to recreate that fear that he surely felt (since we are about the same age) when he first saw it. It may have been scarier if I was still 7 years old, but to an adult an Alien it was not. More credible ways on how the aliens got here, in light of all the UFO lore available to us now, could have been used- like gigantic triangle shaped mother ships releasing tripod shaped battle tanks. The original movie had them arriving as projectiles from Mars. For its day the original tripod craft were much more frightening than Spielberg's. Compare the original 1953 version to this movie, and corny acting aside, see if you think Spielberg made a significant improvement. I think not.