People let Tom Cruise's public life ruin the movie for them. I didn't.

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2006)

I know that the release of War of the Worlds caused a freak sequence of events... Tom Cruise going on Oprah, making an ass of himself, Tom Cruise talking with Matt Lauer, making an ass of himself, et cetera et cetera. I believe that this chain of events made people not like War of the Worlds. They forgot how truly great that it really is!
Keep in mind that War of the Worlds is not a remake of the book or the 1950's movie. It tells its own startling story of survival, and it does it wonderfully. Even though this is not even close to as good as the last Cruise/Spielberg collaboration (a masterpiece by the name of Minority Report), this is escapism at its best.
The scene introducing the tripods was one of the most intense, frightening, and perfect scenes ever made. It stands up to some of Spielberg's best action sequences in his whole career. And the visuals of the film provide an eerie allusion to what it would be like if Americans lived like refugees... something bigger than 9/11 that would possibly destroy every one of us. How far would people go to live? What would you do to survive? On that note, the film is a success! The devastation done to entire cities is really scary and brilliantly visualized.
Several scenes belong in a time capsule. The tripods emerging, the red weeds, the capsizing of a ferry, and Rachel looking down the river... classic. Bearing witness to what the aliens were capable of is shocking and is the stuff nightmares are made of. Visually, both technically and aesthetically, the movie is brilliant.
And with Tom Cruise's public life, people do forget how great of an actor he is. His intensity and emotion really brings life to the film, and his reaction to the first alien attack is brilliantly executed. Dakota Fanning, in my opinion, does amazing. Watching that girl freak out with panic attacks is like you're not even watching a movie. She's remarkable.
Though the third act is impressive and suspenseful, as well as emotional and on a more intimate scale, it isn't as intense and satisfying as earlier scenes, which are brilliant. And I am sure that you've heard of the ending... well yeah, it is a BIG let-down. Let's just say that if it would have ended (partially) the way one would expect, the film would have been much more dramatically appealing and emotionally powerful. As for the ending narration... it's in the book. It's not too hard to understand if you just look at it scientifically I guess.
However, though not perfect, War of the Worlds delivers an experience that anyone would want in a summer movie. Spielberg proves how fantastic of a director he is when it comes to sending you to a new world, and I think that it will (or should) become a science fiction classic. It just disappoints me so much that many people have let Cruise's off-screen antics get in the way of their enjoyment of the film.