Impossible to ignore major problems

Rating: 2/10 (29 June 2005)

I don't know if any of you out there were as psyched up for this remake as I was, but I gave it a lot of leeway because I wanted to like it. And with that having been said, this movie is terribly problematic. I got a ticket to the first showing in Chicago and the theater I was in actually booed at the end. I would've walked out had I not had an order of chicken fingers in my lap that were far more engrossing than this unoriginal representation of a tired genre. It's been a long time since I've seen a more frustrating film with more gaping plot holes. I'm astonished to read the positive reviews out there, focusing on the beauty of the CGI, and not making note of the fact that there are several MAJOR elements of the film that just plain don't make sense (at one point, we learn that the aliens suck our blood out and spray it out over the land--?? This is never referenced, much less explained, after the scene in which this 'horror' is revealed) The characters are remarkably annoying. (I normally love Dakota Fanning, but in this movie, you just want her to be quiet. Literally, she screams the entire movie. And yes, this is exactly what a small girl would do in this situation but THAT Doesn't MAKE IT GOOD WRITING). The plot line is contrived and seriously flawed (watch particularly for what occurs with Ray's (Tom Cruise) son. It's ridiculous. NO ONE would allow their son to 'go fight' in that situation. It's not like sending your son to Iraq. He sends him to certain death...and then he survives. It's absurd. The ending is hyperbolic and nonsensical AND IT Doesn't MATTER IF IT CLOSELY ADHERES TO THE BOOK. This is a different medium and a new piece of artwork. Just because an ending works in the book, doesn't mean it works in the movie. We get 2 hours of complete domination by one side of the 'War' that is defeated in, oh, about 2 minutes of Morgan Freeman explanation. Oh, and sweet cheap shot at Republicans by making the town of Boston be the destination of the protagonist's utterly useless pilgrimage. By the way, I'm a Democrat. That was just bs subversive Spielberg agenda. The special effects are neat-o, so if that's your thing, you MAY find it entertaining. But overall, it comes up short of a terrible movie like Independence Day, which at least offered us the explanation that we had to send a virus up to the mother-ship to bring down their shields. That cheap, ill-contrived reasoning is at least more than you'll get from War of the Worlds. What a truly awful film.