There's been a lot of controversy and a lot of polar opinions on this one. For my take, I was utterly thrilled. Yes, there are a couple of questionable items with the science part of it (gravity not affecting the aliens, why they would have buried ships deep into the earth millions of years before), but as for the content, action, special effects, suspense, they were top notch! The train scene is one of the most chilling things I have ever seen. Still gives my husband chills when we talk about it. :-)
The film is a great mix of a modernized version of the original tale as well as sprinklings of the original movie version and the musical radio version (not to be confused with the Orson Wells Radio Broadcast -- this one is the one with Mr Burton).
A lot of people have complained about the ending, but I think it is because they don't get it. The whole point of the book/movie is to emphasize to all humanities insignificance in the cosmos. How we are not so important there is nothing out there we can't deal with. It's probably not the happiest of realizations, but it is the point. In the book, it pushed even more the concept of humanities insignificance and God's wisdom, especially in his creation of something as common as the cold.
I thought the film rocked! ****
I thought War of the Worlds was great ! I'd still love to see a version set in Victorian England with a decent Director behind it but for now Spielberg's is fine !
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