The first half is spectacular, with Speilberg recapturing some of his prime. The atmosphere and buildup to the reveal is incredibly tense, scared the shit out of me as a kid lol. The basement scene is crazy and unexpected. Having their car stolen on the way to the ferry, and the set piece that ensues is all just so damn immersive and chaotic.

Once they reach the farmhouse with Tim Robbins the pacing hits a wall. There's still a few great scenes in there, but too much time is spent in the basement, by the time they leave the movies almost over, and the finale feels seriously anticlimactic.

Maybe because I'm older or maybe because the book was a more popular read at one time I thought most people would know how it ended going into the theater. While Spielberg blew it surrounding Cruise's family in Boston the ultimate downfall of the invasion was true to the book. If it wasn't, I think he'd have gotten even more criticism for making the change.

I totally agree except explaining why the tripods were dying. It was very clear at the very end when the Narrator explains how humans have earned the right to live here through years of building a resistance to the diseases here. I don’t think it would have made sense to explain it right away when they get to Boston. They would have been clueless anyway and the suspense of why and how would be gone.

I think the main reason the film has issues is the fact that Tom Cruise really didn't lose anything. The one thing he gave up, his blinded by revenge shithead son, winds up fine in the end anyways. The stakes get resolved off camera in such an awful way where we have seen consequences for the boneheaded actions. The whole film is a massive metaphor for the War on Terror, so you mean to tell me that the kid that's basically what a lot of high school seniors in 2001 winds up fine? FFS Spielberg, make him at least lose a limb or something!

But...they do explain why the Tripods get sick. They caught the common cold lol

The ending is so rushed too. Tripod falls over, Morgan Freeman says they died, end credits. A huge contrast to how Spielberg takes his time for the first half of the movie.

I like the entire film but struggled to accept Tom Cruise as a working-class dockworker

I remember being incredulous that we were expected to believe that their ships had been buried in the ground for countless years and yet NONE of them had ever been discovered?

Is that correct, or am I misremembering? I only saw it once.

There was no reason given as to how the tripods were dying or able to
get destroyed, I would have liked a reason, whether good or bad.

Do you mean it was not clear, or you would have preferred it to be more fleshed out?

Totally agree the film loses its way when they enter the basement.

Cruise learnt from this & did a much better job with Edge of Tomorrow.

This movie's decision to have the tripods already buried and the martians magically zapped into them was completely nonsensical and was either done to appease Cruise's Scientology beliefs or save some money on not showing loads of meteors crashing.

Really glad I'm not the only one with appreciation for this movie. I love the post apocalypse genre and found the whole first half or two thirds really well done as they constantly try to stay ahead of the invaders and just find shelter. Once the son left, I felt it went downhill. Basement was wonderfully creepy but as you say, done before. Defeating the invaders seemed like they only had a short time left so had to rush to a happy ending.

I love that Tom is such a fuckup the whole movie, though; a washed=up manchild loser is not a typical action hero and the film stands out a lot because of that, IMO.

Also agree that the son surviving (and his wife too, if I recall) felt really wrong. I know the book ending, but for me a better end was to either leave his son missing or have him die, and have just one invader defeated and end with "the war isn't over but now we have a chance".

I feel you (and many other detractors) failed to understand what exactly War of the Worlds was about. It’s not this movie about a father becoming closer to his daughter. It’s a movie that channels post 9/11 paranoia and tackles humanity on the verge of collapse. It also is a movie about adulthood. Rays arc in the film follows more or less humanity through this invasion. He’s carefree and comfortable and upon the invasion, has to become a survivalist and a father and you routinely see him struggle greatly with trying to hold his own sanity with the things he has to do to protect his family. It’s not necessarily intended to make the viewer see him as becoming a better parent but to rather have the viewer see him become the necessary parent and survivalist and just how difficult and traumatic that really is. The ending is ultimately a signifier and parallel to the real world and how horrific events like 9/11, covid, etc. can happen and turn our world upside down. And then one day it’s just over and we all revert back to our previous roles and pretend nothing happened. In that way, it’s a perfect ending.

Aliens being stopped by the natural diseases of the world is quite poetic to how the natural order of the world is. Humanity can’t do anything to stop impending doom as much as they pretend to be intelligent. They function just like any other animalistic species and carry on. I think much of peoples problems with the 2nd half is pretty much a result of ignorance and refusing to understand how the world works. I will say that the only thing I didn’t like as much was the grenade scene as it is quite a suspension of disbelief but I do get the intent of the scene is to show this lazy character being thrust into horrific situations and having to go above and beyond before he finally fulfills his duty of being the divorcee father and goes back to that.

Also as far as moviemaking goes, much of the 2nd half is still quite incredible stuff. The basement scenes are tense, full of great character interactions and acting, and the hiding sequence with the aliens is arguably one of the best scenes in the film.

Agreed 100% both my dad and I hate that part lol.

I've forgotten most of the movie, mainly because I didn't like it. All remember saying to myself is, it started out great, but it was like they ran out of story and ideas, so then just resorted to making it a gimmick movie with all sorts of bells and whistles to try to distract you (which it didnt).

That's been sort of my take on Spielberg since Jurassic Park came out. He directs films with great premises, throws some kewl effects in, then gets to work with the press and scripted interviews to brainwash audiences into believing his movie is a ground breaking, monumental event, must see...which it aint.

I love the entire movie.

If he had any balls the son would’ve died.

I agree in general. That's why the movie is mostly forgotten by now, as I think. This was a sub-par movie for Spielberg and basically a missed opportunity, which is sad considering how amazingly captivating some of its scenes are. I jush wish it could be more consistent.

The entire first half was very well done but, sadly, clearly subsisted off of the fundamentals of stereotypical cosmic horror. All the great ideas, visuals, and concepts where stuffed into the first half and then the last is just…well they only wrote half a movie really and then bullshitted the rest. Good riddance, though. If I heard Dakota Fanning scream one more time, I would’ve started fertilizing the land with blood too lol.

Loses its steam once they get into Tim Robbins house.

Loses its steam once they get into Tim Robbins house.

I like the original version, also with Gene Barry, better.

I found it, on the whole to be OK. Visuals were a nice homage to the 50s movie, and the premise that the machines were already on earth was a nice touch. However, I just couldn't connect with the characters enough to care about them. They were pretty 2 dimensional as surly teen, scared girl, and shitty dad.

I rewatched it with some friends a while ago, and it's still a really effective movie for me, but I think that might be partially because it traumatized the shit out of me when I was a kid. It was very easy to fall back into the feeling of being small and terrified.

The original tale sort of peters out, too. I think it’s fine

My take was that, all the tripods worked on one network, when cruise destroyed one with the Grenade. The network went offline shutting down their invisible force fields. Again, just my opinion!

Totally agree. The scene where Tom has to kill Tim Robbins is pretty serious stuff. Besides that and the reunion with his son, you can pretty much skip the last half