Worth seeing purely to compare with the original… and because it was the first time I’ve heard terrorism brought up in a sci-fi film.

This is a body of pap. The entire film is based on the normal Spielberg-esque schtick: screaming children (well, in this case, one specific child) and loads of effects (which aren’t special as they’re everywhere, to paraphrase Maddox).

This is a laughing stock of a movie. As soon as the nice-looking aliens turn up and scour Earth, the Americans in the film immediately start to question what’s going on:

“Is it terrorists?”

Dream on, sucker. Stop watching FOX.

“Are they from Europe?”

I rest my case. See this film and blame yourself. Everything’s a cliché and it’s drab. Read the book instead.

This is one of the best movies I’ve EVER seen!

... with tripods as raptors, and plenty of kids in peril (and screaming). Dakota Fanning, I must say, is a gifted actress. I also have to give Tom Cruise his props, although I saw the film in spite of his being in it. (He gives me the creeps lately.)

The special effects were a definite thumbs up.

A sinister look at the possible end of the world, worth taking a look. Just ensure you have someone to hold onto!

I would have really, really loved War of the Worlds had it not been for a couple of annoying plot holes that could have easily been corrected without impacting the film at all.

1) The tripods shouldn’t have been buried.
2) The narrator shouldn’t have said that we were being observed prior to the invasion.
3) The narrator should have made mention that the invasion was very hasty or something.

Honestly, I just can’t buy that an invasion force that had hundreds of thousands if not millions of years to plan and had already been able to put hardware in place would be defeated by common micro-organisms.

Yes, I realize this was their demise in the book. However, in the book, they landed in giant artillery shells and had been observing us with telescopes. Significant difference.

I really liked this except for the ending. Which seems to be the general opinion most people have, so at least I’m not alone. The end was suckily cliche and seems completely ridiculous. It was like they realized that with only ten minutes left, this would be a HUGE BUMMER unless they tacked on a stupid happy-ever-after. Thus, a film that was scary because it seemed everyone was doomed in a hopelessly inevitable way, suddenly came to a screeching, sappy halt. The fuck?

On another note, I thought it was actually quite witty very often, Tom Cruise played it really well. And Dakota Fanning is a surprisingly good actress for a kid, she has a slightly sarcastic way of delivering her lines that makes her pretty cool.