Decent adaptation of an excellent book

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2005)

Having read the original HG Wells book recently, I was impressed with the way the movie remained faithful to the novel while telling it from a modern person's perspective. Sadly, it seems to me that the authors of many of the negative reviews on this site have obviously not read the book, which was written in 1898 and was groundbreaking for its time.
The aliens' ultimate demise to earthly bacteria has been criticised by many as a weak ending, but I believe it is the modern audiences that are lacking in perspective. Given that humans have had little understanding of the spread of disease until the last few centuries, I find it quite plausible that an alien civilisation which has developed in an environment free of communicable diseases, would be caught completely unawares by this threat. Furthermore, the aliens have been observing Earth from a distance, so it is unlikely that they would have a deep understanding of human biology.
It should also be noted that Wells' book, when written, was partly a social commentary on the state of the British Empire at the time, which had inadvertently caused the decimation of many Aboriginal peoples in their colonies throughout Australia and the Pacific islands through introduced diseases.
Having said this, I do have criticisms of my own to level at the movie. Some glaring mistakes, such as the one involving the camcorder, have been noted by many reviewers already. I was puzzled as to why the movie went to the trouble of introducing two close friends of Tom Cruise's character at the ferry, only to have them die immediately.
My main gripe is with the brief scene where we see the aliens themselves. Gone are the carefully conceived Martians of the novel, who were weak creatures, completely unsuited to conditions on Earth, unable to move around without the aid of the machines they controlled. Instead, we are treated to a surprisingly nimble race of stereotypical aliens, running and jumping around on a world with 3 times the gravity of their own. I am constantly disappointed with the usual kind of humanoid aliens in sci-fi films, so it is particularly disappointing to see this movie deliberately reject the above-average effort seen in the novel.
In summary, I was mostly impressed with the film. I feel that the movie would be appreciated more by people who have read the novel, so for those who didn't enjoy it, try reading the novel and see if your opinion of the movie changes.