Tim Robbins Movie:

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		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Despite super effects, a huge budget, and the cinematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies (Jaws, Jurassic Park). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." --Doug Thomas

War of the Worlds at Amazon.com

The Soundtrack	The War of the Worlds (1953)	War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season (TV series)
Classic Sci-Fi Movies and Their Remakes	Aliens Invade on DVD	The Prog-rock Opera (no kidding)

War of the Worlds [Region 2] Reviews:
no war in war of the worlds
2009-12-21 - words can not and i mean can not tell how disappointed i was when i saw this movie in the theather and just like terminator 4 this movie is about a war that has no war. the scene were tom cruise argues with his son while the army fights the aliens is just stupid. I would rather have seen the army fight the aliens but Noooooo we have to watch tom cruise argue with his son. Do not and i mean do not watch this movie and think it is going to be like ID4 or anything like star wars or like the old war of the worlds movie because you will be very very very disappointed.

A Squandered Opportunity
2009-12-07 - Well, with over a 1,000 reviews of this movie at the time of this review, I know it will get lost in the shuffle. That's okay, I just saw it recently on TV and it reminded me of how disappointed I was when I walked out of the theater. Really I'm only going to talk about what went wrong rather than the plot and all that other stuff which you can get from the other 999 reviews I'm sure.

1. The kids in this movie range from creepy to annoying/disrespectful. In true Gen Y fashion the bratty son refers to his father by his father's first name, talks back to him, and is disrespectful throughout much of the movie to him. When he made the boneheaded decision to "fight" with the military I was really hoping he would get vaporized by one of the aliens. No such luck. And what is up with Dakota Fanning, it is downright creepy watching this little girl act much older than her years. All of her screaming is incredibly annoying but when she's not screaming she's acting like a 35 year old adult. Very bizarre, she needs to behave like the little girl she is, not the adult Hollywood wants her to be. She's growing up way too fast.

2. The Tim Robbins subplot was pointless, stupid, and unnecessary. Not much more to say about that.

3. The neat and tiddy happy ending was pure Spielberg. That man has never met a happy ending he didn't like. Ugh! Not only was it sappy drivel, it was somewhat unbelievable that the mother's house in Boston would remain untouched and that the bratty son made it home unscathed before his father did.

The effects were good, but that is to be expected. As much as this movie cost to make (something like a $175 million) you know the effects will be good. What you hope for is a good movie to wrap around those effects and here the movie is lacking. The ending is lame, almost like Spielberg ran out of funds and ideas. There are some exciting moments to be sure, but mostly at the beginning of the move when the aliens appear for the first time and start vaporizing everyone in sight. Not enough to save this turkey. With Spielberg at the helm you would have thought this would be an awesome remake of a classic, but annoying characters, ridiculous plot devices, illogical character choices, unbelievable coincidences, and a really lame ending saw to it that was not to be.

"WAR": the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY
2009-12-06 - Tons of reviews already, so I'll keep mine short:

(A) THE GOOD:

1. Eye-grabbing special effects (esp. when humans get zapped by ray-guns).
2. The lighting is dark, atmospheric; good used of filters and dark tones.
3. Love the BOMBASTIC BOOM bass sound made by the alien ships!
4. Very appropriate, engaging musical soundtrack / special sound effects.
5. Good use of crowds and mob scenes.

(B) THE BAD:

1. Tom Cruise's singing.
2. Tom Crusie's acting / non-acting.
3. Shut that screaming child up!! Bad directorial decision to have the daughter scream throughout the movie. One word: annoying.
4. The ending. It worked well with the original "WOTW," but seems inappropriate now.

(C) THE UGLY:

1. Ugly, unsympathetic characters, esp. Cruise's 2 spoiled brats.
2. The uninteresting sub-plot of Cruise and his 2 kids takes away from the alien invasion.
3. Cruise & Spielberg get minus marks for this failed remake of a CLASSIC.

Good Scary Movie
2009-11-20 - This is a very good scary movie with good acting and directing all around. I believe this is how people would really react in such a disaster.

Dear Steven Spielberg...
2009-11-07 - When you take H.G. Wells massively influential satire on the brutality of Victorian Britain's imperialist rule and transform it into yet another loud, noisy, badly acted vehicle through which to examine your own divorce trauma for the umpteenth time, you can no longer call it "War Of The Worlds" in any way, shape or form.

This is a bad movie. An absolute stinker.

It doesn't stand up to close - or indeed, any - examination and adheres to absolutely no sense of internal logic.

If anyone can anyone explain to me where the guy got the working DV camera from when we'd just spent the previous five minutes establishing that all the electronics in Tom Cruise's NJ neighbourhood had just been wiped out by the Martian/alien "lightning strikes", I'd be most appreciative.

Also, it was most considerate of the crashing plane to leave a nice little debris-free path for Cruise's people carrier to drive along.

If you're idea of a good time is spending two hours watching Tom Cruise alternating between his two default facial expressions whilst listening to Dakota Fanning screaming her lungs out and being inflicted with enough sugary schmaltz to precipitate the onset of pre-diabetes, then by all means knock yourself out and rent this.

Myself, I'd rather watch paint dry than sit through this execrable bucket of bilge again, and apparently I wasn't the only one who felt this way - as this movie's almost instantaneous appearance in the stock clearance bins of DVD stores across the land, soon after it's release, attested.