People don't get it

Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2005)

One of the reasons why War of the Worlds gets such mixed reviews, is that the trailer showed us an action film. But this movie is not a action film. People expect to see a mixture between Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, but they are disappointed.
This film focuses on only one family. Therefore we do not see all the action taking place against the invaders, or we do not get all the explanations we would want... We are thrown into that invasion with that family, we see and understand only the things they see and understand, and that is a reason why people see "plot holes", where there are none... Another thing is that that focus on one family is all the more terrifying. The movie begins without music, just showing us a very usual day, before terror arises with extraordinary events. And some of the scenes in the movie are really tense, and we, spectators, can easily change our places with the characters...
And what about those who accuse the film of being a CG sci-fi flick? If you just take time to WATCH the movie BEFORE writing very dumb reviews, you'll notice that the CG is absolutely not the main point in the movie. You could almost forget it, and if you think of it, there are not that many big huge mammoth visual effects in this movie, and the effects only increase the sense of threat. This movie was not made to show how good the guys at ILM are, so please, stop with those ready-made ideas you get only watching a trailer.
To conclude, this film is not what I expected after seeing the trailer. It is NOT a big destruction film, but a slower-paced and tense one.