I'm sorry, but War of the Worlds is inherently a more palatable concept for a film then Minority Report. A family surviving an alien attack? Or a movie mystery about complex scifi issues and future cops? It's pretty easy to pick out the movie that has the wider commercial appeal.

And 130 million, and 358 million worldwide are not bad numbers. I'm not sure why everyone calls that film a flop. But WoTW just has so much more commercial appeal and every chance to stomp all over that film's grosses. On a pure concept level it just has more money potential.

Fair enough!

There's a reason they put up a big CRUISE name during the previews, it's because he will sell tickets...more tickets than most. People like to root for a hero. And most root for Cruise.

BALDWIN - SPIELBERG - WAR OF THE WORLDS just doesn't have the same ring to it...

I'm going to see this movie mainly because of Spielberg. Frankly, I'm sick of Cruise's antics off-screen, but he's still a pretty damn good actor. I don't particularly care what he does, what his beliefs are, or whom he's seeing, but it's on TV so often and people in my circles talk about it so much that I can't really avoid it.

From initial reviews, WotW looks to be a blockbuster by virtue of Spielberg's brand. I think Cruise still has legions of fans who will make the pilgrimage to their local theater to catch this. Coupled with a July 4th opening date, historically, one of the busiest weekends of the year for the box office, I'd say you have the formula for a blockbuster flick.

I'm not concerned about Tom's insane real life antics and him acting like a hyper 14 yr old over Katie sure won't make me dislike "The Last Samurai" one bit.

As for the actual movie...i'm not to thrilled about it because i'm not keen on this "modern day" thing. But the real factor in my not wanting to see this movie is that i don't want to go to the theater and deal with rude movie-goers bullshit.

I'll wait and check it out on DVD and perhaps i might be suprised like i was with "The Last Samurai".

I think it's gonna be huge!

Nope. I'll be seeing it and think it'll do quite well.

That's what I was thinking.

If you want to find out what scientology is all about, here are a couple good places to start:

http://www.scientology-kills.org/index.html
http://www.xenu.net/

I wish Matt Lauer could have done a little research at places like this and then brought it up with Tom - I never see these scientology celebrities confronted with some facts about their cult.

I want to see war of the worlds because of the source material, not because of Spielberg or Cruise.

it will do fine.
i am prodding a Theton as I type this.

Well, at least it isn't Amway.

Tom Cruise acting crazy will have no effect on the box office of WotW.

The simple fact is, Tom sure ain't helping its chances. That's for sure.

But, as many previous posters have said, I'll be seeing in despite T.C., not because of him. Miss a chance to see Spielberg play in his extraterrestrial sandbox, again? Are you kidding?

Pass the popcorn.

While I totally disagree with Cruise on the Drugs for Depression thing (I am on Drugs & Therapy for depression, anxiety & tremors and probally would have killed myself long ago of not for it) I will see WotW because I love Big Budget Sci-Fi Flix, I don't care about the Cruise or Speilberg name being attached, I just want a Fun Popcorn Flick ala ID4, and not a stupid family drama with a few aliens thrown in from time to time.

A very positive review over at CHUD.com. I'm even more excited to see this now.

Devin gave it great review. He's pretty tough on most genre offerings.

This sounds like it's going to be pretty fantastic.

I can't wait to check out the critical consenus at RT come Wednesday.

With a gun to my head I say between 82-86 percent favorible.


I'm very curious about the ending.

That gushing review makes me think the masses might not buy into it being so dark.

Eh it's Spielberg. If it's really damn good, I have no doubt it'll clean up. Darkness didn't really hurt Episode 3.

I think this will be considerably darker and more threatening than ROTS.


At least that's what I'm hoping for.

I agree this will clean up at the box office, TC's current media freak-outs aside.

I just got out of a screening and I loved it. AWESOME> Two hours straight of action. However, it was very dark and most kids may be turned off by the loud noise and death.

I think I'm done with Tom Cruise. He used to be my favorite actor, but the tide has turned against him for me. And it has nothing to do with his views on Scientology or his philosophies on life.

It has to do with his choice of film roles.

Once, Cruise was an actor's actor. Starring with the biggest in the industry when he was just a pup starting out - Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman - and earning his chops with legendary performances.

I like a true-to-life Cruise. I really dislike the Action Hero Cruise of late, and that's what I view War of the Worlds as - an action hero flick, much like Independence Day with Will Smith.

Of course, I could be wrong about the premise of WotWs. Maybe Cruise doesn't save the world with fearless antics that would kill any other person. I didn't read the story, and the only version I'm familiar with is the Orsen Wells radio program that caused thousands to commit suicide (because of fear, not because the program sucked).

I hope I'm wrong. I hope this movie is not Independence Day, Part Deux. I know Speilberg can get a little PG-13 on us (save for war dramas).

Trust me, it is.

From what I have heard, what might be more likely to kill this movie is its dark mood and approach as opposed to the presence of Tom Cruise.

Will you just admit that you aren't completely convinced that this movie will work until you see it with your own eyes? Every time someone throws something out there to give you some hope that the movie might actually be good, you knock it down immediately. This constant downer attitude is getting a bit old.

If Dr. DVD loses the bet the mods should change his name to "Dr. Doomed".