Not your formulaic action flick.

Rating: 10/10 (4 July 2005)

I went into this movie slightly skeptical, if anything just because I was tired of seeing the previews during every commercial break and Tom Cruise's face on the cover of every magazine with Katie Holmes. Once the movie started, all of that went away and I realized that I should've known better than to doubt the ability of Steven Spielberg.
Given this is an action flick, so you can definitely expect top notch action sequences combined with the best SFX in the world. What you might not expect is Steven's direct approach in making you feel the blind terror, panic and chaos the people feel in the movie. That from the moment people began dying, all anyone could do was run and try not to look back. The magic isn't in the action or SFX, but in the terror you feel triggered by the most basic of human functions, self preservation and the desire of an average Joe parent trying to protect his young. This is what the movie is about in the end. There will be times in this movie where morals would be a joke, where courtesy and virtue -not to mention abiding by the law- are lost in the face of annihilation. Then there are other times, times that aren't necessarily critical turning points in the movie but are important nonetheless, where you'll see a much needed helping hand. During a time of alien movies where the human always wins in the end, it's nice to see what might happen if the human race lost, and nature won out.
What is also trademark of Steven's movies is the brilliant acting. I'm not a fan of Cruise, but his performance as the average Joe/less than ideal parent is no less than superb. No where does he overact or undervalue this character who is in no way a hero, but a man willing to do what he needs to in order to survive with his kids. So imagine my surprise when he should be outshone by the 11 year old Dakota Fanning. Frankly, she is the star of the movie and she acts it every second as the claustrophobic child scared out of her mind while running for her life.
Plain and simply put, this isn't formulaic. You need to think with this movie. It's not Independence Day where we beat the big bads with a computer virus and we're left cheering and congratulating each other. Steven doesn't lead us by the hand like a toddler. We were loosing from the start and he drives this home in a brutal way. Through his use of camera angles where you feel like one of the people running, you won't see big battle scenes b/t the military and them over the hill. You see our people going in and never coming out. Big bright flashes and then flames. In showing less, he has us feel more terror because our imagination takes over. In this, he honors Well's book, which also tried to instill that same fear.
Honestly, this couldn't have been any better.