War of the Worlds review

War of the Worlds ....67%
Tom Cruise,
Miranda Otto,
Dakota Fanning

What to say about this flick... HHHmmm! OK, I liked it, sure there were lots of problems but if you can see past them you'll probably like this film.

The good
-The first 100 minutes (the movie is 117 minutes long).
-Dakota Fanning... if she can get rolls that don't require her to spend most of the time crying, she may turn out to be a great actor. She already has the ability to express emotion through the eyes and small jestures(SP) and movement, something most actors can't do well.
-the CG was very well done. I loved the forced perspective when you first see the "tripod"from behind the tree, it was probably pretty easy to do(similiar to layering photos I'd guess) but it really added to the beginning.
-The "tripods" were pretty cool and were very destructive.The "walkers" reminded me of the aliens from ID4, the fact that they had 3 legs made the design of the "tripods" make more sense .....smart move!
_Steven Speilberg is a fantastic director. He had Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning do things I wouldn't have expected, and his smart use of comedy was a rather nice tension breaker early in the film.
- The action just never stops.

The bad
- OK, after the EMP hits and everything stops working(watches,lights,cars) why did we see a guy photographing the scene, another guy videotape the scene, and after a replacing a simple starter solonoid how can Tom Cruise and his family simply drive away in a van??? I guess this is what's called a selective EMP, make sure you take out the enemies watches and window fans first!
- Even if I was entralled by the lightning and the ground opening up, my first line would have been "oh shit, my kids" and I would have run back to get them out of there.
- Follow the masses, it's a sure way to "hide in plain site". Does it work? uhmm NOPE!
- The "water tenticle" from The Abyss was a great scene by James Cameron, but doing a similar type of thing in this flick wasn't as cool, and what with the "tenticle" not having any infrared or ultra violet or heat sensing radar???
--Oh Stephen you BAD BAD boy, WHY couldn't you make the ending a little less fluffy?? First you have the son make it to Boston ahead of Tom and Dakota ....Damnit the son should be dead, how did he survive?? Then you make sure the house in Boston is in perfect condition and the street nearly untouched.
- In my opinion they should have ended it with the the people looking as the space hatch opens and a dead Aliens hand comes falling out. Fade to black and have a voiceover talk about the aliens inability to handle germs THE END

I might have raised the score a little higher if the ending wasn't so sweet(71-73%). I can get over the small problems, but the son making it to Boston was an actual LOL moment!

Brent