Film Review - War of the Worlds

Steven Spielberg has of course made a lot of great summer movies over the years. Duel, Jaws, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park are among my all time favourites.

War of the Worlds is not.

I can't quite put my finger on why this film didn't do it for me. The special effects were awesome, there were some tense moments, and Tom Cruise was fine. At the end of the day I guess there were just too many things that grated;

1. the kids were annoying and unsympathetic. The son was badly written and illogical, and the daughter veered between hysterical and serene without reason

2. The aliens weren't at all scary. They came up out of their craters much too quickly - it worked a lot better in the book with the slow build up.

3. The Tim Robbins character was a bit of a cliché and wasn't believable

4. The plot didn't have any layers of complexity to it - aliens arrive, people got killed, aliens die. There wasn't enough to engage the brain.

5. There were too many bits that didn't make sense - eg how come Tom Cruise could run to his house quicker than 100ft aliens? And would people under alien attack really have the time to construct 9/11 style missing posters?

6. The film was of course hampered by the book's very un-cinematic ending......"Is that it?"

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I expect something more from Mr Spielberg. The wife thought it was excellent.

I give it 3 stars.

Do you disagree? Why not leave a comment and let me know what you think?