Patman

I didn't quite like it that much.

Good start (mighty nice special effects), sagged in the middle, and peters out at the end. At one point, I was still trying to figure out why the audience would care about the family of Tom Cruise's character, Ray, over any other family in the film. The film just never bridged that emotional connection for me. I get the "everyman" quality that was embodied by Ray's family, but none of it truly resonated with me, and their continued survival didn't much impact the conclusion all that much either as it wraps up a bit too tidy, and I was left with a "Eh..." feeling.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

RocShemp

I agree with your grade for the film, though I'm leaning toward a C- myself.

dvd182

I wouldn't say I felt cheated, but I definitely agree they could have handled it better. I have no problem with The voiceovers, while nice bookends, didn't work too well.

ROBERTCOP34

It was a good sci-fi film not great but aliens were cool and machines but the acting was a huge let down (B- for the over all) (D- just for the acting).
Now after FF4 on july 8th the summer films are over for me anyone think that this year a huge let down?

Giantrobo

I still don't understand this complaint. Dakota was doing what 99% of the little girls on Earth would probably do seeing the horrors she saw and having to run for her life every hour.

Screaming her friggin' head off.

kyzersoze11

all i can say is i cant wait for the dvd. come on give us tons of features, and a great soundtrack.

seasmoke

wow what a entertaining movie, went and saw it today after school at a 2:20 showing. On all levels I thought the movie was great. Have to say alot darker, and freaky then I thought it would be. The darker feel to the movie I liked. The story was great. I espicially enjoyed the visuals in the movie, very stunning and great cinematography. Steven Spielberg did a great job directing the movie. I thought the audio was great too. A great movie to see in the movie theater. Hopefully I'll catch this movie again in the movie theaters. I give it 5/5, its what I expected it to be, a good entertaining movie.

RocShemp

Not true. Although she screamed quite a few times, she actually spent the bulk of the film being a snotty brat. Aliens invade and people everywhere are dying and she's complaing that she has to pee and doesn't want anyone to look even though an alien could zap her at any second. Hell, her and her brother kept acting as if it was all their dad's fault. I as the dad would have kicked my sons teeth in if he treated me as the son in the movie and I would have told the little girl to shut up and merely ignore her protests for the duration of the incident.

At her age, I would have rather pissed in my pants rather than stopping somewhere when death is at every corner.

Now her whinning that she wanted to see her mom was spot on a little kid thing to do. That was the only thing authentic about her.

And the "I wanna join the army" headcase son was a total ass. Tom Cruise was the only character I liked because he was a true dad to actually deal with those asses for kids he had.

On a different topic, the bacteria issue should have been hinted at throughout the film. This could have been achieved by showing the spores/roots/whatever long before Tim Robbins showed up. Then, throughout the film, we could se Tom Cruise and other random survivors noticing how the spores/roots/whatever seemed to be gradually withering. Then perhaps the death by bacteria might not have felt so out of left field to most.

Jackskeleton

i loved it. the look, the feel, the situations. All were great. I had a big Half life 2 feel with the tripods.

wow.. simply wow.

I also have a funny "father/son" bonding expierence from this film at the theatre.

shaggy

I think the exact opposite. I think its the best summer ever and its not even over. Sith, Batman Begins,War of the Worlds, and Land of the Dead were all amazing.

RocShemp

I think he means he has nothing else to look forward to, shaggy.

chanster

As for the narration, I found it to be fantastic, mostly because it was straight from the book. IMHO "War of the Worlds" book cannot be overly praised, it is simply a fascinating piece of fiction that really foresaw the destruction of the old European order, the use of chemical and nonconventional weapons as the ultimate bringer of death in modern society. It is quite a marevelous read and can be found at Barnes and Noble for $3.95 list price (plus you can buy 2 classics, and get the 3rd for free) Please read the book, you will see that it is quite good, better than the movie.

Giantrobo

I disagree. She acted like a little girl having little girl issues. I guess you believe she shoulda held her pee and shut up. I'm sorry but that doesn't seem very realistic. Also, wanting their mommy is also what scared little girls do.

PopcornTreeCt

I'm sorry what exactly were you spoiling there? That wasn't the ending of that new Colin Farrell movie was it?

All kidding aside,

RyoHazuki

Coming from a person who has an occaisonally bratty little sister, Dakota Fanning's performance was pretty much dead on.

jaeufraser

Why?

Terrell

I concur!

PopcornTreeCt

naitram

I disagree. I get sick of sitting through movies where you know what is going to happen, you're just plodding through the process and buildup. I had no idea how this would be concluded until the very end, and I like that.

I also liked the realism of how each character would react to this situation, made it much more interesting and seem like an actual war movies at times.

What about Charlie & Chocolate Factory, The Island, Brothers Grimm, Corpse Bride, Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, Big Momma's House 2... nothin? I'll actually see more movies in the theater this year than probably the last 3 years or so put together.

Tom Banjo

I don't want to take away from the conversation at hand here, but the advice just quoted goes for Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes novel also. IMO.

caipirina

what is FF4 ??? (did I miss Final Fantasy 2 and 3 ?? )

I am looking forward to Serenity and King Kong this year. Star Wars was ok and Batman Begins better than expected ... not a bad year so far ...

going to see WotW again in 12 hours .. yeah !!!

Jazzbutcher

Saw this last night and really liked it. I'm not a huge Cruise fan, but I've got to say he did a damn good job. As for Dakota Fanning, I found her incredibly annoying. The emotional connection between her and Cruise was tenuous at best and her "I act older than I am" routine is very tiresome. Don't even get me started on the son.

I guess I'm in the minority about Tim Robbins. His character's actions IMHO are consistent with what he went through.

Agree heavily with the societal breakdown scenes as being very scary.

JM1

One question for you guys - I saw the movie here in the UK last night, and one thing that surprised me from the off was that it was not a widescreen scope print.

That seemed very unusual for this sort of movie, and for Spielberg. I wanted to know are all of the prints the same, ie was it shot in scope widescreen and some ordinary widescreen prints struck for certain territories - or did Spielberg just not shoot it in scope?

I must admit I tend to favor the latter, because I am sure Speilberg would excercise control over how the movie is presented, and it's possible he did not go for scope widescreen to try and preserve the intimate nature of the movie.

exm

Fantastic Four I assume?

exm

The actually used REAL soldiers for most of these scenes! I read an article in - if I remember correctly - the New York Times about this. Pretty cool.