Boring, not engaging, bad character development

Rating: 1/10 (26 June 2007)

After seeing this movie in the theater the summer it came out, I had to wonder why Spielberg bothered. The story-line is not engaging, the characters not likable and the only thing going for the film is good special effects. Other than that, there is no substance.
As a director, he should have kept Dakota Fanning's character roped in and under control. Instead, she is screaming so much that she becomes annoying. I wanted to see Tom Cruise turn around and slap her in the car. Any 50s movie would have someone like that slapped to bring them back to their senses. Cruise's character is the worst father I have ever seen -- and he doesn't even play this convincingly.
The son runs into a wall of fire 100 feet high (obviously perishes), and then he shows up at the end of the movie, unscathed and very much alive. What kind of cheesy, ridiculous ending was that? Also, when I saw the movie, the theater I was in was packed full, and the moment Tim Robbins' face showed up on the screen, the ENTIRE audience in the theater started laughing uncontrollably. Didn't they test this scene out before releasing it? When you have a "thriller" and the whole theater laughs at a scene that has no humor at all, you realize that the movie is doomed; it will not end up being good or engaging.
Stupid, lame, unrealistic -- there are not enough negative adjectives to properly describe this waste of film. Spielberg was never any good at "serious" movies; this incomprehensible mess of a movie proves it.