War of the Worlds
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, and Tim Robbins

Rating: **1/2

At its best, War of the Worlds is go for broke, all or nothing cinema. It's fascinating and remarkable at the same time. Unfortunately, at its worst, it's dull, stupid, and overly sentimental. And because of its negative aspects, namely only the horrible and horrendous ending, the film falters greatly because of it. For the first 105 minutes, the film is thrilling, exciting, and so engrossing until the ending comes. When the credits rolled up, I felt so cheated by the ending. It's just so stupid describing it is pointless.

As for the acting, Cruise is pretty good. He made me forget he was an asshole to Matt Lauer the other day with this performance. Fanning was okay but all she did was scream, run, and call for her dad or brother. Justin Chatwin, who plays the brother, was also okay. An admirable performance but instantly forgettable. Tim Robbins is totally wasted in this film. It's like his dead character from Mystic River came back and starred in this film. He even has the same goddamn accent.

I think the best thing to come out of this film is the jaw-dropping (and I mean jaw-dropping) visual effects. They are some of the best ever on film, bar none. I still don't know why George Lucas can't make effects look this real while in almost every Spielberg movie they are always amazing.

Overall, the film was excellent with admirable performances until the hokey cop out of an ending that totally fucked up the scenes before it.