Unpleasant and aimless

Rating: Null/10 (9 April 2015)

War of the Worlds is an impressive movie on many levels. The technical aspects, first of all, everything from visuals to the sound design, are all amazing. Nothing less could be expected from Steven Spielberg. The alien tripods especially are very, very chilling as they walk across the crumpling town.
The problems all rise from the story and the characters. It's an unpleasant film to watch, mostly because it plays out more like a disaster film than an alien invasion popcorn film. And yes, it's clear that Spielberg intentionally meant it to be that way. Doesn't make it the right choice, though, at least in my books. Especially because even in a disaster movie you still usually finish on an uplifting note, all of humanity coming together to rebuild. Here the ending is, while not exactly dark, at least depressing. It's a message of meaningless suffering and the unpredictable cruelty of future and fate. I'm not surprised that so many people see terrorism allegories in this film, but the thing is, if you want to tell such a story, don't tell it in a way that makes us expect a popcorn film.
The actors and characters are also rather nondescript. You don't really end up rooting for any of them. The one that comes closest to resembling a sympathetic character is the little girl, played by Dakota Fanning, with her adorable hat fetish, but even she is rather boring and annoying most of the time. Tom Cruise is not bad, actually, but the script forces him to be something of a jerk, which has never worked out for him, mostly because it suits him just a bit too well.
War of the World fails as a movie because it's nowhere near entertaining enough to work as a popcorn film, but neither it has enough depth to make you think. You'll get something out of it for its production values, but they're not enough to justify its flaws. One of Spielberg's weakest, I'm afraid.