A great popcorn movie!

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2005)

Here we have another alien invasion story. Unlike the original 'War of the Worlds' (1953) or 'Independence Day' (1996), this film focuses on a family coming to terms with the fact that the world is being invaded from creatures beyond the stars. Yep, it's an emotional one, but never fear there are some pretty good action sequences too.
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a dead-beat dad. He has no clue when it comes to his kids and has little interest in them. When the kids (played by Justin Chatwin and Dakota Fanning) come to stay for the weekend whilst Mum (Miranda Otto) and Step dad head to Boston, all hell breaks loose when a freak lightning storm sees the coming of aliens that are hell bent on destroying humanity. The story follows the trials and tribulations of the Ferrier family as they go on the run and try to survive this invasion.
The Special Effects peeps working on this film really pulled out all the stops. Explosions galore, car chases, riots, and random acts of violence - this is an action film with the trademark Spielberg sentimentality attached. ET has arrived and he's not being very friendly. The Tripod War Machines are amazingly designed and very intimidating. The only disappointment is that the Heat Ray isn't actually a heat ray, but more of a disintegrater.
With regards to the story, the plot sticks loosely to the book. We've still got the elements of the original story in there - tripods, heat ray, harvesting humans for food, the red weed, etc. There's no mention of the Thunder Child (the ship in the book that managed to disable one of the tripods after a tremendous battle), and the character of Oglivy (played brilliantly by Tim Robbins) is a combination of several key characters from the book - the Parson who is driven to madness, the Artilleryman who wants to create a brave new world underground and, of course, Oglivy the scientist. The aliens in the movie are never mentioned as Martians. In fact, the word 'alien' is never even mentioned, or at least I don't remember it being mentioned. They are always referred to as 'Them'.
There's lots of suspense. I literally chewed my nails down to the cuticles during some of the later scenes. There's nothing in here to make you jump, but it'll have you hanging on the edge of your seat, wondering if the terror that the characters are going through will ever end.
The emotional aspect of the movie heightens the suspense. We have a man who barely knows his kids, trying to bond with them during an extremely difficult time and he knows for a fact that they'd rather be off on their own than with him. This man is trying to keep it together for his kids, but can't and that is what eventually leads to a break-through between them.
The most harrowing scene is probably the scene at the ferry terminal. We have hundreds of desperate and scared people who are willing to do anything to escape, even if it means forcibly removing a man and his children from their car at gunpoint. It just goes to show that an individual person is smart and calm, but people are stupid and dangerous.
The major downside to the movie is the abruptness of the ending. It's over so quickly considering how drawn out everything else is. That's all I'm saying about it. I don't want to ruin it for you.
'War of the Worlds' is a great popcorn movie. As always, Tom Cruise delivers a good performance, but it would be nothing without the support of the wonderful Dakota Fanning.