War of the Worlds

Rating: D

Oh man, this movie was awful. Sure the special effects are great, but too much eye candy can make you sick.

Tom Cruise stars as a dead-beat dad who has his kids for the weekend from his exwife and her rich new husband. There are minor estranged dad fireworks between Cruise and his kids, and then the real fireworks start when the aliens show up and start blasting the crap out of everything. I was under the impression that this movie was about the aliens attacking, people running away, and then fighting back. This movie seems to be more interested in following Cruise and his kids as they run about the countryside, hiding in basements all over, and then it's over. It seems rather quick, but the pace of this film is extremely slow. I just wanted it to be over so I could find out what the heck is going on with the invaders. Information is given out in sparse bundles to the audience as the movie chugs along. It also seems that Spielberg's vision of humanity is that in the face of adversity, everybody will turn on each other and care only about themselves. I share a more optimistic viewpoint.

Cruise is ok in this role. He seems very angry about something and apparently doesn't like his kids all that much. Maybe it is Dakota Fanning's incessent questions. That caused me not to like her that much.

Seems to me that War of the Worlds is more like Independence Day but without all the excitement and most of the explosions and enjoyable characters. It stays pretty close to Orsen Wells' vision, but might not be up for today's movie-goer. Stay at home and hide in your basement from this one.