Kim Gentes

Meet Ray (Tom Cruise). He is the knowningly disconnected father who, though he is street smart, lacks the common sense not belittle his teenage son or keep even basic food in the house. You start off really disliking Ray, as he gets his two children for the weekend from his ex-wife, Mary Ann. You might even despise him.

But in about 10 minutes your disposition against Ray will evaporate, as you cling to your neighbors seat and hold on for the most gripping realism based effects ever put to screen. Cruise learns quickly that alien machines are coming up out of the ground and literally distintigrating people and destroying everything. It soon becomes evident that the battle scenes aren't local, and you realize that whole world is under seige. With virtually no electronic devices or electricity usable, the cities shut down and fear takes hold of everyone.

The effects are not even describeable. You will lose perception of what is real and what is effects while you are watching this film. Buildings, freeways, vehicles fly through the air, whilst gigantic alien machines crush and "shoot" (with a distintigrating "ray" that is a very cool effect) everything in their paths. The aliens don't seem to have much of a plan, other than just whipe out everyone. The story is very straightforward and doesn't veer off into a director's fest- instead Speilberg takes the job of trying to simply tell the story of War of the Worlds, keeping all the major plot items intact.

And while the plot is good, Speilberg makes this movie about people and families, not aliens and invasion. Like every movie he does, this directory wraps our reality into his film and you immediately recognize the film as something near your home, your neighborhood, friends, and family. Cruise's character turns his self-protective and selfish character from brutish father into caring patriarch. But the transformation is not without pain. Encountering peril after peril, him and his children survive through cunning and luck to live another moment. Eventually, they run into the most gripping character in the movie, played by Tim Robbins. Robbins does an exceptional job playing the wacked out, and isolated renegade who will try to take on the aliens by himself, and you wonder if Ray and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) are safer facing the aliens than with this nutjob (you'd be right!).

The dark irony of Ray protecting his child while doing something horrible, is the tension of survival that Speilberg inserts poignantly into various places in this film. It happens once when their car is assaulted by others fighting for transportation, and another time behind a closed door with Robbins character.

Slowly Ray learns the lessons of his own decisions causing unspeakable hurt. Fanning is not just a pretentious little girl in this film, she is downright obnoxious. I can't say she is completely over the top (I mean, heck if the world was getting destroyed by aliens all around, I suppose a 8 year old girl might be freaking out), but the constant scream and freak show by Fanning was the only thing that actually distracts you from watching this great movie.

The final outcome is for you to see, and it is well done. But what happens in this film is covering for the family story Speilberg is telling here about people growing up, and about how humanity makes decisions about each others lives, and will trade one for another, if it comes to it. Cruise character moves from bad dad to Michael Landon wise by the end of the film, and you actually believe it-- its too bad the rest of us guys don't have an alien invasion to teach us to be better fathers. Then again, maybe not.

Don't miss this film on the big screen. There is no way you will believe the imagery in this film until you see it. It's even more horrifying and real than StarWars III because, unlike Lucas' recent masterpeice, what happens here is on a very real, very touchable earth, where real people (not Jedi Knights) die-- and you feel it.

Do NOT bring the kids to this film. No one under 12 should see this violence and fear.

A new epic. Really!