Don't believe the hype.

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2005)

The Spielberg / Cruise publicity machine is in full swing now, and I guess most people will be going into this film after hearing 'best film I've seen this year' and other such niceties from various reviewers.
However, take away the emperor's new clothes and see the film for what it is, a mishmash of borrowed ideas and appalling casting, and of course, the Spielberg schmaltz.
Let's get the good bits out of the way...
Awesome affects. Awesome. Mindblowing set pieces and classic Spielberg moments. Genuinely unsettling and very dark in places. But...
SPOILER ALERT.
How to make War of The Worlds.
1. Borrow the entire basement scene from 'Signs.'
2. Borrow the Tripod Human Harvesters from 'The Matrix.'
3. Borrow 'Birds flying away in panic' from 'Day After Tomorrow.'
4. Borrow 'Alien snake-like surveillance device' from 'The Abyss.'
5. Borrow 'Trees trembling because there's something big underneath them' from 'Jurassic park 2.'
6. Borrow 'Exposition by way of numerous news reports on all channels' from 'Signs' and 'Strange reports of weird atmospheric events in Russia' from 'Independence Day.'
*sigh*
Tom Cruise is simply too big to take on this part, his sheer starpower oozes onto the screen and we find ourselves watching Tom Cruise escaping the aliens, as opposed to a forty- something crane operator with a failed marriage. This is a sad miscalculation by Steven Spielberg, it worked in 'Minority Report' as Cruise played an extraordinary man (as he did in 'Collateral.') It just doesn't work when he plays one of us.
The other problem is those cheeky, unrealistic family conversations that Spielberg loves. They're cute in Jaws and ET but not here. This is supposed to be darker. In fact, Cruise's 'wisecracks' occasionally made my audience giggle - completely ruining the atmosphere in supposedly the most dramatic places.
Quick tip.
Watch the film, then replay it in your head, this time replacing Tom Cruise with Russell Crowe. It suddenly becomes... better. It's an interesting glimpse at the difference between Tom Cruise, a massive star in the classic Erroll Flynn vein and Russell Crowe, an actor much more accomplished at hiding himself and allowing us to invest in his characters.
Hmmmm.