War of the Worlds (2005)

By all technical aspects this movie is perfect. The CGI, Sony's design, and music are all top notch. By far the best part about this movie is the masterful direction by Steven Spielberg. So many moments in this movie are edge of your seat suspenseful or even terrifying. The characters as well are pretty good as well. They aren't amazing, but they're likeable enough and very well acted. The weakest element of this movie is the plot and story telling. The movie kinda feels like it went on for longer than they need to. The ending is a twist that could have been pulled at essentially any time within the 3rd act. The 3rd act is just a collection of scenes that are trying to be entertaining with no clear path. Some of these scenes work and some of them don't, but it all comes to a satisfying ending. There are also a few plot holes such as the aliens giving of an EMP which disables all technology, but a few minutes later people are filming the Tripods (the aliens) with camcorders. Also there is a character that goes to a place that afterwards is almost immediately completely torched in fire when the character is still there, but he comes back fine at the end. Also some of the alien's abilities go unexplained and are kind of unclear. The other thing this movie does extremely well is capturing the hopeless feeling of an apocalypse. It made me feel sad but I was still enjoying myself because the occasional action scenes were absolutely breathtaking. Overall, I'll give War if the Worlds an 84%.

This is the second collaboration between Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg after Minority Report. I think most of you would be aware of the source- HG Well's famous book and this is a worthy addition to the many adaptations the famed book has had. Featuring typical Spielberg traits War of the World is a big budget adaptation with enough scenes to whet your alien appetite. If there is one thing I wish they'd have done is they'd tone Dakota Fanning down a few notches. The pacing is excellent as are the special effects. This is a great science fiction film by a master filmmaker. A must watch.

The film starts with the image of a disintegrated American family and ends with a reunified one. To get this result, 2 hours of non stop fighting against aliens were needed. The aliens are using huge robots which walk pretty clumsy the earth, XIX - Jules Verne style, with snake like tubes which get people like a monster. In order to make them powerful, the humans use the classical machine guns like in a SF of the 60's. Only once we see fighters and helicopters. And they are useless due to a shield. So the cheap Troy horse trick is obvious, the hero after being abducted into the belly of the robot, places a hand grenade, and all the huge machinery suffers a magnetic shock. One merit of the movie is to see no oil explosion. It's a movie from a different era, even if it starts in NY, I cannot remember seeing any minority. Only once, in countryside there is an Afro-American robbing a crashed airplane. Which is the opportunity of a hilarious moment when Tom Cruise asks the guy if he is a survivor, and 20 seconds later his tour comes to be asked the same question. In an America wrecked by earthquakes stormed by Alien machine getting out of the ground, where the streets are filled by destroyed houses, people, wrecked cars, even airplanes, there is all the time a clear way for someone with a car. The car represents the freedom. And is amazing that our hero, and the army are the only working cars. Only once, the street is crammed by people, but they still are driving through. The people attack the car. Tom Cruise gets out, and only when he sees that someone would pick the car not leaving out his daughter, he takes out his gun. This is a second powerful symbol. Tom Cruise is a responsible family guardian, when he had left the house, he took his gun out of a cipher secured box. And now, only in an extreme situation, he threats the others to keep the distance. He is like an European hero of XIX with savages because it looks like there is nobody with a gun, in US at countryside ... good joke In a such a dramatic situation, the statistic on interactions with the strangers of our hero is pretty bad, they are so few that I can describe all of them: 1. he discovers with the other people in the street the weird holes in the ground -> there is some common feeling, but then he runs by himself, like everyone else 2. he steals the car of a friend who repaired a car according to his advice 3. the tv crew shows him the news at a global level, but then they shut the door of the van in his nose 4. before taking the boat, he discovers an ex-girlfriend with her daughter, he doesn't help her to get on the boat 5. the only positive is when the Christian couple try to get his daughter out of the battlefield, when she is waiting alone for him 6. the crippy one is their lonely host who has food deposits for months, and the hero asks the host to talk to him never to his child 7. the second positive is the soldier who helps him to get out of the belly of the monster 8. the third positive is when the hero shows the birds on the head of the allien robot to a soldier who discovers from this the method to win against the alliens These are all interactions! conclusions: the isolation of people, the only support is from the army and a little from the Church. This movie has so many clichees, and use so much makeup, that it might be a parody, a trick to deceive the censorship. If this is the case, bravo, if not ... it's very said for its public.

Whenever comes to Steven Spielberg, it will be definitely a masterpiece. This one is very spectacular because he is using animatronics rather than using visual effects. A definitely watch movie. Tom Cruise played a divorced dad character which is willing to do anything to safeguard his daughter, played by Dakota Fanning.