Well done, scary, but ends with a whimper

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2006)

War of the Worlds is at this point practically an archetype. It is "the" alien invasion premise, and Spielberg does it proud in this updated version of the tale. The acting, the effects, the pacing ... all very good. Yes, the allusions to the Holocaust and 9/11 are a bit too much, but not annoyingly so. They just stand out when they happen. There is one twist regarding how the aliens grow their "red vine" that is so macabre as to be disturbing. I thought it was a nice touch for a scary movie.
The oddest thing about this movie is its ending, or more specifically, how it is handled. If you have read the book, or know anything about any incarnation of War of the Worlds, than you basically know what happens at the end. Spielberg chooses to create a thrilling movie for the first hour and a half, and then it essentially ends off camera. We literally go from thrill ride to safety in a few seconds and we are not sure why. Viewers are brought up to speed quickly, but there is no real emotional impact or sense of relief. There is mostly a lot of, "Huh?" Of course, in all of the War of the Worlds versions, the ending is somewhat silly. It is even more so in Spielberg's movie, which at several points has characters talking about the fact that the aliens must have been planning this invasion for thousands of years. If so, how did they overlook their Achilles heal? Unless that is an allusion to the Bush administration's "planning" of the Iraq war, it makes no sense. These aliens made a major boo-boo.
I enjoyed the first 80 percent of War of the Worlds. If the final 20 percent had been better, it might have earned a 9. As it was, I gave it a 7.