Great CGI, but weak story and acting

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2006)

There are scenes in the movie that would surely leave a lasting impression: e.g., a barren landscape filled with gloom and blood, giant tripods destroying whatever in sight. The CGI-induced atmosphere is often fantastic.
But characters are either underdeveloped or too conveniently stereotyped in the movie. What's with the son's ridiculously immature attitude? The constant screaming of Fanning Dakota's character is almost cartoonish.
Moreover, Fanning Dakota seems to be over-acting. And Tom Cruise in this movie is more reminiscent of his character in Minority Report or Mission Impossible than a redeeming father.
The family subplot in the movie is clichéd, which is actually okay given the focus of the movie. But I had expected more story-telling about the aliens' plans and the governments' responses, which of course are conspicuously absent in the movie. In the end, the movie feels like a uni-dimension bad dream, which is remembered far more for the fear it strikes in the visual sense than for most other things one would expect a good movie should deliver.