Entertaining, but disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (7 September 2015)

In this film, directed by Steven Spielberg, Earth is attacked by aliens with giant mechanical tripods in a contemporary approach of the famous H.G. Wells sci-fi novel, and a remake of a homonym film by 1953. Has Tom Cruise in the lead role, Ray Ferrier, a father who seeks to put his daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) in a safer place.
Although Steven Spielberg have used enough computer special effects and killed half of mankind, this film isn't only a human calamity, but the drama of a father trying to save his daughter from alien invasion, a theme who has been subject of several stories. In fact, most of them has been, directly or indirectly, influenced by the novel "War of the Worlds" ("Independence Day", just to quote one of them).
The tension follows all the film, where action and special effects scenes are mixed with suspense and expectation enlivened by scenes that remind us of the Holocaust or 9/11. The two main characters easily captivate the audience's sympathies and make us become more anxious and "clinging" to the film, which is always good. Tom Cruise managed to come out very well in his role, despite a certain ambiguity of his character, who only thinks about running away during the first half of the movie and spends the second half acting like the hero of "Mission Impossible", without we understand why exactly he changes his attitude. Another problem of this movie are the fairly obvious plot holes that we don't like to see in a Spielberg's film (I would even say that they aren't forgivable in a film directed by him).
For all this, this film leave some critics a bit disappointed, having just been nominated for Oscars in three technical categories (Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Special Effects). Commercially, however, it was a success, largely due to the fame of Spielberg and Cruise, but also due to the special effects and the fact that is able to achieve its main goal: entertain who pays to see him.