Decent but no more

Rating: 6/10 (16 January 2006)

This film, a remake of a Hollywood classic, could have been so much better. The film has all the right ingredients, save one. It has the actors and actresses...Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, and the Director, Spielberg. What it lacks is a decent script. And much of the script is good (not great, but good). But the ending of the film is a complete failure. The action and suspense very abruptly end. There's no indication previous to the very end that the invaders are being affected by Earth's germs and viruses until, all of a sudden, they're falling over. One would think that, as sickness began to take the invaders, that their behavior might become a bit erratic, but there's no sign of that. Also, all of a sudden, Cruise and Fanning find themselves on a street full of nice, neat, untouched little brownstone houses. There's no indication that the city around them is completely devastated. There are no survivors clamoring to get under the shelter in one or more of these surviving homes. And the son surviving the fireball on the other side of the hill is implausible. Then, of course, we must have the requisite and sickening reconciliation between father and son. ACK! 6 out of 10 only for the first 3/4 of the film. The last quarter is a 1 out of 10; it simply becomes too laughable to take seriously. A wasted opportunity to remake an old favorite.