War of the Worlds2005

“…Now allow me to attack Steven the hack. Due to War of the Worlds, a failure's what I label you! It looked like some sellout bullshit Michael Bay would do!"  — Quentin Tarantino I think for such an anticlimactic story it really needed a much more artistic approach and the generic action just really falls flat. I think the biggest problem is the writing. I don’t mind the estranged father angle and even like cruises performance but it just doesn’t get any traction till the brother “dies”. I think they should have killed him off much earlier on the film thus pushing the father and daughter closer together.  It doesn’t help that the brother is just a generic edgy teen with vague emotions and motive and the sister is generic small child. Tom is the only character with any, well, character but the writing is so one note and he doesn’t ever really change. The only emotional moment that I liked is when Tom sings “Little Deuce Coupe” because he doesn’t know any lullabies. It’s kind of silly but there’s an emotion in Tom’s eyes that got to me a little bit.  The finale really falls flat because they try to have some action moments while combining it with the ending of the original story thus making both parts feel less impactful.  All in all it’s a pretty generic retelling of a really good story and honestly one of Spielberg weakest films.