User Reviews

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This is a strange movie to me. The beginning of the film focuses on the intimate lives of the main character and his family. We see him leave his job to be the care taker of his children while his ex-wife and her boyfriend go to visit her parents. The beginning of the film tries to create an intimate sense of the struggles of family bonds and being a good example of what is right and wrong. This intimate close up look is fascinating to see because the characters behave like believable people to each other, but their reactions to what is happening in their world is subdued. The characters speak to each other like they have an interest in each other, but when the aliens attack, its like they don't care about the destruction, killing and disturbing nature of it all. I tried to wonder if there is any thematic significance to the beginning portion. It seems like the main character is a part of something larger in every sense, and has everything to lose in the invasion. If the aliens invading only seek to destroy our world and everything we hold dear, the main character has every reason to fight against that and protect the people and home he loves. We can see these characters struggle to preserve the intimate bonds they have with each other, but I don't see any other commentary than that. Humanity has to use everything it can to preserve our way of life against a foreign invader, and it takes all of us being united to achieve that. Personally I don't like the style of the film or the writing of the characters. The dialogue and directing is believable, but I can't get past how the characters are with each other. The main character and his family show a lot of care to each other, but its as if no one is willing to relate to each other. Each of them have their own distinct personalities and they are comfortable showing them, but they don't turn their personalities down to understand each other. All of them will get energetic and talkative when something is important to them, but they'll talk past each other when none of them are willing to listen and understand the other person. It feels like these characters are always on display for the audience, and not sharing with what is happening to all of them enough. That is true with the central conceit of the film as well. Every person in this film is going through an insane experience with aliens invading their planet, but they still talk to each other like everything is normal. Everyone is so calm and relaxed through this without ever considering the implications of an event like this. No one's reality is **** or knowledge of the world forever questioned. It is hard to place yourself in their shoes to see how you would react in their situation because the average person would have a much more shocked reaction. The film has such an unfamiliar feel, you'll feel like you never really understand what's going on. You're never anticipating what will happen next in the story, or relating to the characters, or feel like you have a sense of the overall plot. The film feels very foreign and alien like it's title, and I honestly can't say I understand why. It reminds me of an M. Night Shyamalan film where all the characters act strange and you never really know why. The film wasn't very enjoyable to me but I believe there was a good message in it.

Greetings from Lithuania. "War of the Worlds" (2005) is my favorite adaptation of the famous novel War of the Worlds. By its design, mood and ending, this Steven Spielberg's blockbuster starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning is a pretty faithful adaptation. I liked this film when saw it in a movie theater back in 2005, enjoyed revisiting it during years. It is very skilfully made film, with great filmmakers behind the camera and in front. I liked how approach of this story was from a perspective of a father who has to protect his children during the invasion. It is very tense film with some huge set pieces, and Steven Spielberg's good work. It is not his best film by far, but for me it is a good one.Overall, Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is a good film about invasion, and what would happen then. I liked its epic scale of production even if it follows only few character. A good film.

Tom Snooze-- I mean, Crooze STILL cannot act. He looks more mentally challenged all the time.

A decent film that's quite loyal to the original book, although set in a different timeline. Decent acting throughout, with lots of tension and suspense. I enjoyed it and would watch it again!

2005 war of the world was such a good movie because it's has horror it's has acting it's has a plot and it's has alien creatures that really like gives you the heebie-jeebies when you see them at the end of the movie and the 2005 war of the world with Tom Cruise playing a father who is trying to protect his kids from the invasion and you see so many people on **** making games based off the 2005 war of the world movie that became a fan favorite

I just watched Amazon's 2025 version of War of the Worlds and given that, this version deserves a 10/10.

Parte bene, ma dopo pochissimo si rivela essere la solita minchiata moderna, che attinge da un ottimo passato per.. beh, rovinarlo, con una rivisitazione in salsa "social". I tempi con cui si narrano gli eventi sono ridicolmente veloci, e se nell'era degli "Short" sui social non mi sorprende che sta roba piaccia, resta comunque una roba ridicola; com'è, evidentemente, chi si appassiona ad una PRODUZIONE così tanto irrispettosa e quindi VERGOGNOSA.

Loved this movie as a kid and i still think its good but all means but the first half really drags on and it sorta just stumbles to the end

Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning don the well-worn masks of dysfunctional family members who rediscover each other during an apocalyptic, world-shaping event. Oddly, many of the big-time alien invasion's most profound moments take a back seat to constant bickering from the broken family. Even the plot device that ultimately drives the invading forces from the planet's surface is only explained by a tacked-on bit of Morgan Freeman narration, which gives the impression that it's more important to see three random individuals arrive safely in Boston than it is to ensure the survival of the greater human race. Or perhaps the filmmakers just assumed that everyone was already familiar with the developments in the original tale and chose not to overdo it with a straight rehash. Either way, the tighter focus actually manages to produce a greater perspective of the day's events and allow for a quieter, more suspenseful overall vibe. Unfortunately, it also misses badly at conveying a greater arching plot structure. With the benefit of hindsight, many of the film's special effects don't look particularly good, but an impressive display of sound design does go a long way toward redeeming such failings. It's not what the original was, but that isn't what it's trying to be. For better or for worse. Updated thoughts after a 2021 re-watch: Re-visited this one with the family, immediately after reading the H.G. Wells original together, and I was genuinely surprised at just how loyal a modernization it really is. This big-budget adaptation freshens many specific scenes from the book - a crowded mob scene at a highway logjam, a silent argument while hiding with an unstable stranger, a boating encounter with the monstrous alien tripods - in ways that wink at knowledgeable viewers without bucking the lesser-read. Granted, there's nothing in the novel about a sexy single Dad or ancient killing machines buried beneath Brooklyn, but there is plenty about creeping red vegetation, scarcity of information in the midst **** catastrophe and the stripped, panicked essence of human nature. By shifting the setting and tweaking a few details, the film eliminates the less-apt dressings of late Victorian London and adds a little extra Hollywood bombast without losing the greater message. Namely, that people can be pretty terrifying with their backs up against the wall. Our protagonist is no exception, making selfish knee-jerk decisions in the heat of the moment and later regretting those means, if not their ends. Tom Cruise is his usual action movie self, handsome and gritty but also strangely believable as a bedazzled pedestrian, and both the visual and audio effects are ambitiously praise-worthy. It does sometimes edge a little too close to the superficial, and little Dakota Fanning is downright unbearable at points, but when it focuses on the sheer, large-scale spectacle of each moment and thumps the deeper themes, War of the Worlds '05 makes for a pretty good effort.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Putain, quelle daube !! Je mets 2 quand même pour les effets spéciaux, si, si. Ils sont vraiment très beaux, très bien faits. Mais il faut abuser vachement de l’avance rapide sur le DVD pour les voir parce que c’est une foutue comédie de merde… en fait ! le père divorcé avec ses **** nous font leur sitcom de 10 mn tous les quarts d’heure. C’est usant, franchement. C’est Spielberg donc ce sous-produit ? je me souviens des Dents de la Mer qui savait instiller de la tension et de la peur avec un requin en plastique mais là il distille simplement de la fatigue. Je suis fatigué de regarder les merdes de Spielberg et de constater qu’à chaque fois (ou presque), c’est (encore) de la merde ! avec ou sans Tom Bouse.

Much like "Minority Report", this movie works in spite of Spielberg's direction. Once you get past the first 15 minutes, it turns into a total roller coaster ride, with barely any dialog to carry the next hour and a half. Despite the thrill ride along the way, The ending is a bit of a let down, but that is keeping in tradition of the source material. My biggest complaint is the over reliance on CGI. Sure, technology has come a long way since "Jurassic Park", but it still doesn't look as good as the practical effects of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

War of the Worlds. The end of humanity. The film "War of the Worlds" is an exciting film that perfectly conveys the atmosphere of panic and chaos in the face of a sudden alien attack. Director Steven Spielberg masterfully creates a tense and dramatic mood, and the special effects turn every scene into an unforgettable spectacle. Tom Cruise plays with passion and conviction as a desperate father trying to save his children during an alien invasion. The sequence of events makes the viewer glued to the screen, experiencing every tense moment. The picture perfectly conveys the atmosphere of chaos and fear of the unknown. "War of the Worlds" is not just a film about an alien invasion, it is a story about survival and family values in extremely difficult conditions. This blockbuster perfectly combines fast-paced action scenes with deep emotional moments and will be a real treat for sci-fi fans.

War of the Worlds is an expensive Sci-Fi action disaster film. Star cast, eminent director and good literary primary source. What could go wrong? And it's enough just to transfer the action of the film to modernity. And here's a kind of disaster movie from Spielberg. But there is no scale, Wells wrote War of the Worlds before the World Wars, he had no idea what it would look like. This movie begins to fall apart like a house of cards. Special effects are not surprising even by the standards of the early 2000s. There is no scale of what is happening. So it turns out that War of the Worlds cannot but show a catastrophe, not a fantastic show something due to primitiveness, not to surprise with scale. Also, the main character (who was well played by Tom Cruise in general) without a characteristic and the surrounding people sometimes behave inadequately. And the end of the film is as delusional and meaningless as the film itself. War of the Worlds is a bad disaster movie. As a Sci-Fi movie, it's not bad, but it's clearly not Spielberg's best work.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Film of a devastating slowness and with a fairly banal plot, but with the action scenes and special effects it is saved. An honorable mention is to be made to the tense parts that are masterfully rendered in this film.

Exciting alien invasion drama, Tom Cruise's acting was meh, but it had a brilliant atmosphere, aand lots of plot holes. The ending was a bit weird. Not in the good way. I give it a 5-6.

It's an alright 'desaster' movie. However, given the source material, it's really lacking both character development, pace, and it generally feels cut short almost everywhere. It's not necessarily a bad adaptation, it's certainly fun to watch, but it feels incredibly bland and flattened out once you consider that it stems from one of the greatest authors of the past two centuries.

The worst part of this film is when Tim Robbins (I think) points out that the aliens have been planning their invasion of the Earth for at least a million years. No one in the 1953 version said anything like that (as I recall) and all it does is point out that with a million years of planning (apparently) none of the "vast intellects" of the aliens (as described in the 1938 Mercury Theatre radio version) ever considered the possibility of encountering biological hazards here on Earth. Which is really kind of amazing when you consider that mere humans have been thinking about it before they even launched anybody into space. Well, of course, it's only a movie and apparently none of the "vast intellects" in charge of making this movie considered how the aliens might have accounted for biohazards and still fail in their invasion. All in all, this is a fairly typical Tom Cruise movie full of non-stop action and lots of FX but little to stimulate the higher faculties of the brain. Personally, I prefer the 1953 version with Gene Barry. Better pacing. Better plot.

'War of the Worlds' had a lot going for it, considering the story, that it was directed by Steven Spielberg and a decent cast on paper. It turned however to be a frustratingly uneven film, with a good first half and a pretty lousy second half. Starting with what's good, the film looks fabulous, the atmosphere that the cinematography and lighting evoked is just incredible and the special effects are without complaint too. John Williams can be relied upon to compose a good score and he does here, being both rousing and spooky. Spielberg does an impeccable job directing the first half of the film, giving a lot of the first half thrills, suspense and genuine scares. Tom Cruise does a good job in the lead and Tim Robbins is eerily eccentric. As said, the first half has many great moments and is filled with unnerving suspense and scary chills. Truly imaginative details like the burning train, the birds/tripod scene and the river of the dead bodies burn in the memory for a long while after. However, the human drama was not as transfixing as it should have been, being hurt by the dysfunctional family subplot being rammed down the throat with no subtlety at all with nothing relatable at all and especially by the kids. Spielberg has demonstrated before that he is capable of directing great child performances, prime examples being Haley Joel Osment in 'AI' and Christian Bale in 'Empire of the Sun', but the performances of both Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin are incredibly irritating. Not sure which is more so, Fanning's constant screaming or brattiness or Chatwin made to act throughout the film but especially the second half like an indecisively written character who makes stupid decisions and acts rebellious in the most insufferable of ways. The dialogue is often insipid. After a lot of promise in the first half, 'War of the Worlds' is let down significantly by the second half where the pace slackens (a notable example being that overlong scene in the basement) and the suspense dramatically wilts (such as when the aliens are introduced, and they are not menacing in the slightest) and is replaced by ridiculousness, frustrating character decisions and sentimentality. The Hollywood schmaltz kicks in and keeps assaulting the viewer at full throttle, while the ending is up there as one of film's most false, cloying and anti-climactic. In conclusion, a frustratingly uneven film that starts off quite well and then completely falls apart. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Spielberg's somehow turns 180° from making an alien movie with no damage to the world (Close Encounters Of The Third Kind), and then an alien who is lovely (E.T.), then to a robot who got destroyed by human (A.I.), to making a movie about a robot with an alien inside it, completely destroying the world, and it shows all of it from the beginning till the end so crazy, so madness, and that's what War Of The Worlds look like, making it the craziest movie he's ever made.

This is one boring action flick and one of Spielberg's worst efforts. Throw in the wooden Cruise and this is a movie not worth investing your time in.

While I enjoyed it, it's definitely a mixed bag. It's like for everything it does right, it does something wrong. Its scenes of chaos and panic are absolutely horrifying, but it's the most unsubtle 9/11 allegory I've ever seen. The tripods are incredibly scary, but the aliens inside them are hilariously goofy. The performances are all solid, but the characters are very annoying. What pushes it above average for me it's the ending. I really like the ending. I know some hate it and think it's unsatisfying, but it's refreshingly hopeful and it makes me feel that if aliens were to attack, everything would be ok.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

War Of The Worlds was enjoyable but it had a lot of potential. Movie was not upto the mark and there were many plot holes (When the attack begins, every piece of electronic equipment stops working. However, moments later when the Tripod rises from the earth, people are snapping pictures on digital cameras and one person is videotaping everything on a camcorder). I didn't expect this type of mistake from Spielberg. Well, leaving this plot hole aside there were other things also which were not upto the mark like storyline and emotions were seriously lacking. This movie could have been a blockbuster like Independence Day (1996) but that didn't happen. I would also like to add the point that even after so much mistakes, you will enjoy this movie mainly due to pacing and alien attack story (which almost everyone likes). If you want to watch Spielberg's work, then I will definitely not recommend this movie to you as it is not his good work but yes, you can watch this movie for entertainment.

If you want to know what an alien invasion would be like completely devoid of tension and filled with inane cliches instead of characters, you'll love this. In case of an actual alien invasion, find Tom Cruise immediately because even though he's just a car mechanic he basically figures out everything. Skip this dumb movie, or watch it on mute as the visuals are the only good thing.

Terrible casting and terrible script what could have been at least the CGI holds up somewhat today.

Steven Spielberg fez um bom trabalho aqui! Dakota Fanning está excelente aqui, junto com Tom Cruise, que entrega muito bem o papel de um pai que nunca esteve presente, mas que está disposto a salvar a vida dos seus filhos de qualquer forma. A trama é muito boa, nos prendendo desde o inicio. Toda a apresentação da família foi inteiramente essencial para o resto do filme, pois mesmo se tratando de uma invasão extraterrestre, o que há de mais importante ali é a ligação entre os personagens. Todo o mistério e volta dos "aliens" funciona muito bem, nos prendendo desde o inicio. O filme não se preocupa em explicar, porém visto a perceptiva, não há nada de errado nisso. A OST é muito boa e a fotografia igualmente. Os efeitos especiais são excelentes e a cena da zona de guerra foi simplesmente magnifica. Achei o plot final satisfatório. Acredito que faça sentido, mas tendo em vista a inteligencia dos aliens, acredito que deveria se ter trabalhado mais nisso.

Okish!first 20 mins were teribble and boring felt like a scumbag father wants a war to love his children!after 20 mins or so movie felt entertaining and engaging with its awesome screenplay and john william's score and sure acting even then ending was like what the hell the invasion was stopped with just grenades felt incomplete ending with great lines!overall a one time watch kind of movie!

The story of War of the Worlds focuses on the everyday people and how these events affect them. The film is above all else, effective. Here is a film about panic that literally induces it.

Pretty Good War Of The Worlds is definitely not Spielberg’s best and Dakota Fanning might scream a little bit too much, But it’s still intense, at times scary, well acted, and beautiful visuals.

Has a lot of Spielberg's trademark quality with visuals, acting, writing and music though ending is unsatisfying.

I am at a loss to understand how this movie was so well received. This is a modern, poorly dramatised remake of a classic book and fails on just about every level. The first and last narration pieces stand at odds with the guts of the movie and appear trashy while trying to give film status. The story of mankind's survival is superseded by the crappy soap opera of a dysfunctional American family, for lack of a better term. What was the point of having the tripods buried (a million years ago, what is the point of manning them through capsules and lightning. Just stupid **** A good story spoiled by having to listen and watch Cruise continually argue with his brain dead off spring.

A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells's seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.

I give this movie a 9 for this reason. The acting was great and the action was perfect. Something about those Tripods scared me as a kid. Must've been the noise they made. The only thing I don't like about the movie is the lack of story. However, maybe that's what spielberg wanted was for the audience to know nothing of the Aliens. Anyway great movie should definitely watch!

Not a fan of this movie nor the book. This one is of Spielberg's weaker films. I rather watch Pacific Rim.

Entertaining, but disappointing In this film, directed by Steven Spielberg, Earth is attacked by aliens with giant mechanical tripods in a contemporary approach of the famous H.G. Wells sci-fi novel, and a remake of a homonym film by 1953. Has Tom Cruise in the lead role, Ray Ferrier, a father who seeks to put his daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) in a safer place. Although Steven Spielberg have used enough computer special effects and killed half of mankind, this film isn't only a human calamity, but the drama of a father trying to save his daughter from alien invasion, a theme who has been subject of several stories. In fact, most of them has been, directly or indirectly, influenced by the novel "War of the Worlds" ("Independence Day", just to quote one of them). The tension follows all the film, where action and special effects scenes are mixed with suspense and expectation enlivened by scenes that remind us of the Holocaust or 9/11. The two main characters easily captivate the audience's sympathies and make us become more anxious and "clinging" to the film, which is always good. Tom Cruise managed to come out very well in his role, despite a certain ambiguity of his character, who only thinks about running away during the first half of the movie and spends the second half acting like the hero of "Mission Impossible", without we understand why exactly he changes his attitude. Another problem of this movie are the fairly obvious plot holes that we don't like to see in a Spielberg's film (I would even say that they aren't forgivable in a film directed by him). For all this, this film leave some critics a bit disappointed, having just been nominated for Oscars in three technical categories (Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Special Effects). Commercially, however, it was a success, largely due to the fame of Spielberg and Cruise, but also due to the special effects and the fact that is able to achieve its main goal: entertain who pays to see him.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

When a dramatic movie makes you laugh the point was lost somewhere... Extremely boring plot, totally uninteresting plot-twists, very nice CGI effects (that's good), alien invaders. The plot goes more or less like this: good-for-nothing ex-husband needs alien invaders to prove his ex-wife he's not good-for-nothing, constantly screaming little-girl included. This movie was such a disappointment that up until the end I was waiting for something to happen and then the movie ended and yet nothing happened.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Küçüklüğümde Film satan bir yerden, boş zamanımda izlerim diyerek, kutusunu ve adını beğenerek aldığım fakat izlerken o yaşlarda bile uzaylı kavramını kötü hissettiren film olmuştur. Ayrıca filmin sonunda tek yaprağın bile ne kadar önemli olduğunu göstermesi, doğaya karşı daha dikkatli olmamızı gösteren bir şeydi. Kötünün iyisi olarak değerlendirdiğim bu filme puanım 5.

I am not sure why audiences were lukewarm to War of the Worlds. For me, this shows Steven Spielberg at peak Spielberg. Heartwarming and built around family with childlike wonder, the film also shows Spielberg's great ability to create thrills and scares along the way. Tom Cruise is great in the lead role and really does a great job as the deadbeat dad tasked with saving his kids who do not really like him too much. Dakota Fanning does very well as his daughter, though she does become annoying a few times. The special effects and creature design are incredible, while also demonstrating why everybody is so paranoid. The film also does a great job drawing parallels with historical occupations (French in Algeria, Britain in the United States), while capturing the paranoia of post-9/11 America all in one swoop. Overall, War of the Worlds is a fantastic science fiction film that really is a testament to Spielberg's skill in the director's chair.

Spielberg successfully adapts H.G. Wells' classic science-fiction novel into a more intimate and human tale of survival for modern audiences. And, though the film's infamous ending may indeed be worthy of all the infamy it has accrued over the years, "War Of The Worlds" is still a pretty fantastic film. The thrilling set piece design, engrossing performances, and surprisingly enduring visual effects all add up to an incredibly memorable and occasionally horrifying experience that shouldn't go unnoticed.

In my personal opinion, I think this is not as good in Independence Day in some ways, better in some ways. Overall, this film doesn't have the suspense Independence Day had or even the realism. I'm giving this film a solid mixed review of 6/10

This site doesn't allow me to write just one word, that for me, best describes this movie, so I'm writing this just to submit that word that best describes the feeling I had watching this at the cinema: Painful.

It was unbelievable what I saw an incredible , unexpected and chilling alien , well even if it comes from a book invasion, unspoilable the movie eh !. And that good performance from Tom Cruise . Good job Tom !

This movie is one my favorite movies of all time. Love every bit of it. Tom Cruise actually killed the role and the little girl did it too. To be honest this my favorite movie because it has suspense and some scenes just left me breathless.

A great film, faithfully recreating the essence of the book. Tense and forboding throughout, the Martiain invasion is brilliantly paced and handled expertly. Cruise gives a workmanlike performance. The ending, however, is dissapointing and although it follows the book closely I do feel they wrapped it all up too quickly. One of my favourite science fiction films of recent years

An exhilarating re-imagination of Orson Welles' classic. Spielberg brings the story and the genre into the modern era. Nevertheless, I cannot help but feel War of the Worlds would have benefited from casting another actor instead of Tom Cruise.