Absolutely awful...

Rating: 1/10 (7 July 2005)

How Steven Spielberg churned out this awful film is beyond my comprehension. H.G. Wells is spinning in his grave somewhere, of that I have no doubt. The 1953 version of this story is superior in all aspects except the CGI effects, which is of course to be expected. The characters are shallow and unlikeable, the violence and gore are over the top, and the plot (if you can call it that) meanders from one long drawn-out scene to another with no real purpose. Spielberg is obviously attempting to impose the 9/11 scenario onto this story, which works in some aspects (clothes of vaporized people wafting through the trees, people covered in the dust of the victims and debris), but in others seems to take away from the actual story of the invaders (which is what I feel this movie is about.) However, the real back breakers of this movie are the insane number of plot holes and inconsistencies that riddle the film from beginning to end. I will elaborate on some of the more-obvious mistakes, but I'm sure there are plenty more in the film waiting to be discovered. Now, obviously the basic premise of the story is that the aliens, despite their technological superiority, are defeated by strains of bacteria native to Earth, for which they have no natural defense. It's a powerful message. In my view, any species advanced enough to wipe out Earth's armed forces and systematically eradicate mankind would have some sort of defense against the natural environment, or at the very least, they would be *aware* of the danger. However, since this is part of the original story, it's not really a plot hole. The film's biggest misstep involves the idea that the aliens planted their war machines under the surface of the Earth in the distant past. When the invasion comes, they simply ride bolts of lightning down into their machines and surface from below. This immediately raises two issues: 1. If the aliens were able to plant these machines before the rise of humankind, why did they not conquer the planet then? It would have been much easier. Laying the seeds of an invasion when you can win in a walkover immediately makes no sense. 2. These machines are buried very close to the surface (judging by the time it took for them to rise out of the ground and their height, it couldn't have been more than a few hundred feet.) The story expects the audience to believe that, in all the thousands of years of erosion, natural disasters, mankind's digging (at least one is buried in New York City, which is riddled by subway, water and power lines), and blind luck, no one has stumbled across these things. Rather ridiculous to me. Later in the film we find out that the aliens grow their food by using blood as a fertilizer to grow their plants (if you can call them that.) The movie ignores the fact that the blood of Earth animals would almost assuredly be incompatible with their native ecosystem. We even get to (mostly) see a hapless human get drained and sprayed over a field. In my opinion, this was the most disturbing aspect of the movie; it serves no purpose but to disgust the audience and appeal to the lowest common denominator. Having the aliens bring a complete ecosystem with them and spread it over the Earth's surface would have served the same point and been less over the top. Of course, if the alien ecosystem could take over Earth, the aliens themselves would probably be immune to the bacteria, but that's not keeping with the story. Robbie (the son of Tom Cruise's character Ray) makes a ridiculous return from the dead, as after he runs over a hill into a blazing inferno (which is later destroyed by alien walkers), he shows up in perfect shape in Boston (after traveling several hundred miles alone through alien-controller territory.) Apparently total immolation is not as dangerous as I thought! Finally, when Ray and Rachel (who does nothing but scream for the entire movie) reach a devastated Boston, they find his ex-wife, her husband and her parents in perfect health, on a perfect street untouched by the invaders. It looks as if they've just been sitting around in their Sunday best, sipping cocktails and waiting for our heroes. If the aliens are truly combing the planet for humans (as we saw with the insanely-long basement scene with the sensor tentacle), don't you think they'd work their way through the cities first? At the very least the family should be in the basement, not hanging out. There are more plot holes (Ray has the only working car in the Northeast outside of the military, an EMP takes out every electronic device in NYC except digital video cameras and news vans, etc.) but I think I've made my point. A final note on the aliens: despite looking like Independence Day ripoffs, they are quite well done. However, I think the 1953 version of the story got it right by not showing the aliens at all (save for the hand falling out of the walker cockpit at the end.) By keeping the enemy faceless and isolated in massive machines of war, you make them more, well, alien. In today's world of movies, violence, blood and explosions sell. If you can throw in some references to 9/11 and terrorism, so much the better. This movie is an empty shell of Wells' story, and is disappointing because it had so much potential. I will not be watching this one again anytime soon.