The version made in the 50's was pretty solid, and the radio version done by Orson Welles is brilliant.

This thing, on the other hand, is a turd sauteed in vomit.

This is a body of pap. The entire film is based on the normal Spielberg-esque schtick: screaming children (well, in this case, one specific child) and loads of effects (which aren’t special as they’re everywhere, to paraphrase Maddox).

This is a laughing stock of a movie. As soon as the nice-looking aliens turn up and scour Earth, the Americans in the film immediately start to question what’s going on:

“Is it terrorists?”

Dream on, sucker. Stop watching FOX.

“Are they from Europe?”

I rest my case. See this film and blame yourself. Everything’s a cliché and it’s drab. Read the book instead.

pretty cool

Quite a different look to it than the 1950's version. Very good in it's own right. Like the original, part of the excitment is from the relentless pursuit of humankind by the seemingly invincible alien creatures. Worth a rental.

I loved the original one. The update was rather poor. I'm not a fan of either Tom Cruise or Dakota Fanning so I'm sure that didn't help my impressions of the film much.

I'd love to see the new remake of it, but the older one was pretty cool and good.

This was a pretty good movie but not because of Tom Cruise. I love Dakot Fanning tho!

I started to watch this but it is one of the worst remakes Ive seen in a long time.

Not being a Tom fan the best this movie could have hoped for was a four but it jsut dragged on and on and it brought nothing new to the table. Actually kind of borring watching Tom over act again and again.

Updated version of the original movie looked great and was treated well by Speilberg, but that was the problem for me - this movie closely paralelled the original so there were no real surprises, except the great special effects and the sappy ending which I just did not buy at all. Overall I was disappointed some because I wanted a little something different, some more variations on the original movie and all I got was a mordern stylized take on the original.

This one's hard to rate thanks to all the personal baggage I carry for it.

As a huge fan of the original story, I've been waiting patiently lo these many years-- since way before I actually read the book in the early 90's, for SOMEONE out there to make a REAL true-to-the-book *War of the Worlds*. For years I've heard scattered rumors that it was on the drawing board. I even have a pictorial of illustrations done by great Roger Dean who was once considered for doing the design work. VERY sadly, this latest rendition of the story was just going to be *ANOTHER* "loosely-based-on-the-book" version and set in the modern day. That's sad-- they keep missing the boat of possibilities with this one.

H.G. Wells' classic novel is an incredibly intriguing story and a forerunner of today's science fiction. It is *essential* to the spirit of the novel that it take place IN Victorian times. It was inspired (in part, and among other things) by the fear of the onset of the Industrial Revolution and its machines that were about to "take over the world". Wells went to great lengths describing the giant, bulky Martian tripod walking machines which menaced the countryside and how they traveled here by being fired out of giant "canons" from the surface of their dying red planet. It's written through the eyes of a Victorian Englishman. The Martians are Martians as envisioned by Victorians in the context of their understanding of science and the world, and that's the very soul of the story!!! 

I'll never understand the resistance to making an authentic screen version of this great novel! First Orsen Wells' NJ centered radio version in the 20's, then that ridiculous "flying saucer" rendition in the '53, a bogus TV series in the early '90's, now THIS! I had hoped that at least Spielberg wouldn't just turn this into just another high-tech alien invasion special-effect-fest, though I wasn't surprised to find out that's exactly what happened. If the movie was to lack the Victorian perspective, it could at LEAST have a modern take on that theme and show such an invasion through the eyes of a modern man in a similar fashion. It didn't. In fact, it was quite superficial-- never getting into the minds of any of its one-dimensional characters and certainly giving none of the insight of the original story. Without that, it's really just people getting chased around by giant walking tripods.

With all that said, I actually enjoyed the movie for what it was. It did manage to pull off the atmosphere of of horror in the book-- especially in the tripod machines themselves which were incredibly well done. The aliens themselves were interesting and well done, but once again totally missing the point. They were suppose to be very sluggish invaders from a dying world suffering the effects of Earth's higher gravity. That's why they needed the machines to get around in the first place! They were their "space suits". The basement scene with the camera tentacle was edge-of-your-seat frightening. The ending was much too abrupt. It was as if they just decided "enough is enough". I also think the missile fired at the dying tripod to knock it over diluted the very poignant fact that it was bacteria that killed the aliens when man was helpless....

"Martians--dead!--slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth."

See the film and enjoy it for its own sake-- just PLEASE don't leave it thinking you know anything about the book which is so much deeper if you've never read it.

This movie's great...my only gripe is there should have been more military vs. aliens scenes. The first half hour is awesome and jaw-dropping, then the film declines a little as it goes on, but not much. It's worth owning, and I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the better sci-fi films I've seen.

Good, disturbing. .. but a terrible ending makes it less than 5-stars. . .how on earth did this film get a PG-13 rating? Only Spielberg could have gotten away with that. . .decent rental but it was awesome in the theater. . .

this film is F***IN SICK AND SAVAGE MAN one of the best action movies of the century so far.

Better than I thought it was going to be, since Tom Cruise, AKA "The Shrinkbuster" was in it, and I loathe him with a passion. He can't act for dung, but there must be millions of people out there who must like bad acting. Either that, or a ton of people out there who also want to expose psychology as a hoax,as if Shrinkbuster, Vinnie Barbarino, whatever other Hollywood types are in this racket, and the fourth rate sci- fi author who came up with this weird cult are somehow greater thinkers or introduced a more revolutionary field than Freud, Jung, Maslow, Erikson, Horney, etc... It was actually pretty decent, although Tim Robbins played almost the exact same person that he did in Mystic River.

Martha put a gun to my head and made me go with her to see this Tom Cruise flick. I have been burned so many times by Tom Thumb that I wanted to invest the cost of admission in beer. I offered to drop Martha off, ease into Murphy's Strip Bar and Armenian Grill for a few, and they go get her afterwards. She put her foot done, (stomping on my sore toe, by the way) and we went together. Well I have to admit that it was much better than I expected and not nearly as bad as I feared! I was a great fan of the George Pal 1950's edition, but this flick is respectible even when stacked up against the classic. The politically correct little girl deal is a little tiresome, but I gotta get used to that, I suppose.

A fan of the 1953 film directed by Bryon Haskin- I awaited this remake with great anticipation. I enjoyed this film very much- it had a dark and gritty photography style which was melancholy and creepy at the same time. Cruise did a good job- even though I am not a fan of his- and his recent comments have diminished my opinions of him further. Nonetheless the film is chilling and entertaining.

I loved this movie. The visual effects were so realistic. Tom Cruise played great as the dad and Dakota Fanning played the perfect part. This is my favorite movie ever!

better than cinderella man better than broken flowers better than your ass this version does not suck you suck

Tom Cruise should stick to acting (his strong suit) and leave psychological/medical issues to the professionals. This was a film that truly benefitted from its special effects. It was genuinely believable that the Earth was under attack by aliens. A reasonable remake of the original film from the 50s.

I saw it recently but almost forget it...not a good sign. It was entertaining for the most part but ended too abruptly. Good acting. I expected more from this film.

If you look closely, one of the aliens in the background of one scene is E.T. Besides him, everyone else in this movie is very unlikeable, even the extras!

Good to see this in a big theater because the special effects are very good. the plot surrounding a weekend dad who has his teeage moody son and 10 yr. old daugher is so so. when war stars with the aliens he tries to get them to Boston where their mother is. the acting is pretty good. has some scarey moments. but not that frightening. as mentioned before, the special effects are very well done.

A bit over hyped. Hard to follow plot. Some cool special effects, but not enough of them. Weird forced dialogue between Cruise and his broken extended family throughout.

UPDATE: I have now seen the film and what was a five has become a 3 (more like 2 and a half). Acting and special effects are both good, but it is RIDDLED with plot holes. They are too numerous to mention here, but I left dissapointed. Plus, it's just not my kind of movie. I prefer films that make you think a little. O.C.: I haven't seen the film yet, but by the comment below, I can only assume that Spielberg stuck to the book on this one. The fact that the ending of the story is unspectacular is part of the point. It's in some ways a very unassuming Deus ex Machina. The only thing that could save humanity was our humanity.

VEry good. A well done movie, and very suspensful. Good acting, and an awesome story.

(NOTE: I have not seen the original, nor did I know much of the storyline at all when seeing this film. Therefore, I can't make any comparisons and am rating this based on how it stood alone as a movie). Fairly decent summer movie. Synopsis: the movie follows a man and his two children as they witness and try to survive after bizarre storms bring forth an alien invasion. The story was okay (intentionally humorous at many points), the effects were good, the ending was less than spectacular, but not horrible. Overall, okay.