The film excelled in so may other fields  acting, atmosphere, special effects  that I was willing to overlook the usual Spielberg disadvantages

Rating: 10/10 (7 July 2007)

H.G. Wells's classic tale of aliens invading Earth has been a vital part of pop culture for over 100 years. What started as a sci-fi story back in 1898, was adapted (among other formats) into a radio play (with horrific results) in 1938, a ridiculously dated movie in 1953 and a melodramatic musical in 1978. Each retelling of the story placed the plot and characters in a social and political atmosphere that captured the essence of the period's fears and doubts within the artistic format.
With these given facts, it was only a matter of time until the 21st century would see its own popular adaptation of the subject material. Someone had to retell the story while capturing the paranoia and true fright the post-9/11 world has been feeling ever since the notorious terror attacks. When Hollywood chose icons Steven Spielberg (director) and Tom Cruise (actor) to head this remake, a modern classic has been born. After striking lightning once with Minority Report, the creative duo set out to tell the story of an alien invasion from the point of view of a father and his two children, who are trying to find their way to shelter, and security, within the mass mayhem that follows the invasion.
Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a working, divorced man, who witnesses an extra terrestrial attack during what was meant to be another weekend he spent with his kids  son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and daughter Rachel (the obnoxiously precocious Dakota Fanning). When the alien killing machines evaporate people into thin air while Ferrier runs home to save his children, our flawed hero becomes covered with the dust that was once human beings. Throughout the entire film, we watch him try to salvage his family in a chaotic world. We are never told who the aliens are and we never see generals or politicians handling the crisis. Instead, we are only revealed to the news reports and destruction our heroes encounter. The screen shows us tanks and soldiers running over the hill towards a battle against the alien tripods, but they never take us to the other side of the hill, to show us what's really going on.
Watching the movie, I couldn't help but compare the dust Ferrier was covered in with photos from Ground Zero on the day of the attack. The aliens, in my opinion, were sophisticated allegories to the terrorists' threat: we never see their faces until the film is near its end, we never fully understand them; yet they pose a threat to our existence, so we have no alternative then to fight them off.
The only thing that truly bothered me was the ending, which was both too sudden and abrupt, as well as overly clichéd in my own humble opinion. But then again, the film excelled in so may other fields  acting, atmosphere, special effects  that I was willing to overlook the usual Spielberg disadvantages (let's face it, the man doesn't know how to end a film) and enjoy the overall view as a haunting mirror to the way our society behaves during this frightening first decade of the 21st century.