This movie screams Hollywood. It makes no mistake in addressing itself as American in everyway. From the patriotic defeat of an alien race by the greatest country on the earth to the numerous 9/11 references, it should come as no surprise that the film also screams Steven Spielberg. I am surprised Dakota Fanning didn't scream his name, it seems like the laws of probability would dictate that sooner or later she would. Now five years old, the film far from stands of one of the director’s best or one of the most important of…ever.
Initial reviews for Spielberg’s retelling of the Well’s classic were mixed. Numerous critics saw through the hyperbolic amalgamation of alien technology, special effects, roaming cameras, explosions, flying cars, and general panic. The film is pure Spielberg, perhaps a collection of may things he has already succeeded at. In that manner, it doesn't really offer anything new. Other critics placed the film upon a pedestal as the director’s crowning achievement. These people must have missed Jaws and Jurassic Park. What this film does offer is almost two hours of non-stop alien apocalypse action rendered a complete failure through the eyes of what we must conclude to be a not untypical American family. It is certainly not an ideal family, but the extra terrestrial invasion sure helps mend it a little. Tom Cruise is right at home in the big action blockbuster, running from things that are about to blow up and managing to find his way front and center in the frame. From what little development there was in this not-quite-character-study, Cruise portrays the failing father turned heroic dad well enough. We can only assume that Spielberg is pleased in mending the estranged American family.
