This is War Movie. This is a War Movie on Steroids. Any Questions?

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2005)

After channeling Kubrick for awhile (with "A.I." and "Minority Report"), and delivering us two mildly entertaining larks ("Catch Me if You Can" and "The Terminal"), Steven Spielberg finally returns to what he does best: crafting thrilling big-budget Summer tent-pole movies. Of course, this being the older more mature Spielberg, "War of the Worlds" is far darker and more brooding than many of his past crowd pleasers, and it is also weighed down by the classically sentimental Spielberg cheese.
Spielberg expertly weaves in some timely immediacy to his tale of alien invasion that adds to the mounting suspense and terror. He hauntingly reminds us of the shock and awe of 9/11 with his images of crowds running for their lives and buildings toppling. There's also a very effective sense of the unknown, which mirrors the terror and fear of New York City in the early moments of the attacks on the World Trade Center. "Who is doing this do us, and is this the End of the World?" These are the same questions the citizens ask in the early moments of "War of the Worlds". Later in the movie, as the survivors are hiding in basements after the fall of civilization and the rise of the alien occupiers, we get a not-so-subtle but very meaningful reference to current geo-politics (pick your poison: the US involvement in Iraq, or the Israeli presence in Palestine). "Occupations never succeed," Tim Robbins' character reminds us all.
All of that makes for a nice modernization of H.G. Wells' classic tale. The strenuous attempts at character development, however, keep the movie from reaching for greatness. The fractured family at the center of our story was in crisis long before the aliens arrived, and using the end of the world as a way to bridge the gap between broken relationships (particularly between father and child) is a bit quaint and cheesy despite the best efforts from the cast. Tom Cruise acquits himself nicely as the deadbeat dad fighting to survive and protect his children. For most of the movie, the superstar actor makes you forget he is Tom Cruise (that loathsome Scientology-loving, psychology-bashing, Katie Holmes-cradle-rocking, media whore), which is a real testament to his innate talents and Spielberg's deft direction. And Dakota Fanning's unnaturally natural yet very powerful performance as his scared daughter would've been more of a revelation had this actress not already been so grotesquely over-exposed at such a young age. Also, the overtly happy ending after the anti-climactic albeit faithful to the original source material demise of the aliens, is a bit of a letdown.
In the end though, audiences should fear not, for Spielberg delivers those trademark long, lingering awe-inspiring money shots (alien tripods vaporizing towns from hilltops at night, a crowd in a frenzy to get on a ferry boat destined for doom foolishly thinking it is their only ticket to survival). For the excellent build-up of tension and those fantastic pay offs, this is Spielberg's best popcorn flick since "Jurassic Park."