A Whole Hearted Sellout

Rating: 4/10 (8 July 2006)

I was so surprised by the movie. I give it a 4 because in my opinion there are only 4 things that are good about it. It has superb special effects. It kept one concept from the original story the snoop scope. Dakota Fanning was captivating. I liked the Mustang Tom drove in the beginning.
Otherwise, this movie was so totally a let down. It was not a movie of H.G. Wells book. It was Cruise-centric and exploited Wells' story to the point of disgusting. About half way through the film, I lost any care or concern about what the "aliens" were doing or going to do. How they got there and whether or not they were any real threat to the world or not. There are probably dozens of B-Movie scripts that would have been just as good a shell for Tom to preform in. Obviously, it was all about how Ray and Rach would eventually survive even though they get "caught" by a tripod.
Harlan Ogilvy played by Tim Robbins actually was the scariest character in the story and had greater dimension than did Ray or Robbie who were both single dimensional bores. When Ray "silences" Harlan by presumably killing him with a shovel, I expected a better payoff than simply ending up in the catch net of the alien. That murder and the one(s) he is responsible earlier because he brings a gun and then carelessly drops it, shows Ray to be a person who valued only his life and that of his children. He lacked the character that a person would need to actual accomplish what he does in the movie. He was not better than just one of the mob. Trying to make him a hero when he takes down the Tri Pod and figuring out their shields were down (another event never explained) just does not work.
This movies is so far removed from the quality films Spielberg has made. I saw it on DVD and for a special effects movie based on a Si-Fi Classic the DVD has no special features that make it worth buying. One featurette that shows how the tripod and aliens were created. Not interview, no commentary, no outs or deleted scenes.