That's the key word which comes to mind when I walked out of this film. I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in any movie than this. I actually lightly booed it, something I NEVER do.
I'm pretty tired, so bear with me. In a nutshell, Jaster, I'm the opposite from you. I walked in expecting a great film, and walked out highly disappointed.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON AS I PRETTY MUCH RUN THOUGH THE ENTIRE FILM!!!!
The problems with this film are numerous. The biggest being that I just couldn't get into it. I'm an escapest, it's easy for me to fall into films and the worlds they create. As long as the suspension of disbelief is maintained, I'm usually happy. Which is way I hate plotholes. As such, I rarely ever hate a film. There was just something about this one. Everything was fine at the beginning. I did leave breifly to use the restroom and refill my refreshments right at the new broadcast, and came back at the lightning. Tom Cruise's silliness at the lightning(the under the table moment) was ok. I was still into the film.
Basically when it got to the appearence of the first tripod, my intrest started waining. Everything was fine until the earth started cracking. It excelerates into buildings starting to crumble. The though entered my head, "All this weird destruction happening for no reason, yet few run?" People literally don't run until the tripod appears. Even when the first leg emerges, few panic. I didn't find that too believable. Sure, some would be curious, but you'd think others would want to get to hell outta there. So the masses come off as extremely dense.
So the suspension of disbelief takes a light hit.
After the tripod starts killing people though, all hell breaks loose. We see TC outrunning the wholesale distruction of building. Cruise, running down a street, covered in human ash, while everyone and everything gets ravaged but him.
Suspension of disbelief takes a broadside.
He gets home, and his kids ask him what he's covered with. We have a relatively ok scene of death and destruction regardless of the silliness of human stupidity. So what do we follow it up with? An unintentionally light hearted line! Quite a few snikers in the theater. One just laughs at how he is asked to explain being covered in human remains.
Suspension of disbelief takes another broadside.
So already, my faith is a tad shaken, but I'm still into it.
They find a working car, and the mechanic gets irate that they're stealing it. Apparrently he doesn't notice the mass panic and sobbing people, nor hear the screaming and creaking of the tripods and thier victims. He deserved to die.
Then there's the whole peanut butter scene. Another attempt to show his out of touchness with his family. THe throwing of the bread came off as fairky comical and not frustrating as intended. *Note that while I say comical, I don't mean that I'm laughing at it. I don't do that. Merely that the scene comes off in a way that was unintended*
This wasn't too bad I suppose. But you have the plane crash. While the basement scene was great, it didn't exactly give the impression of such a catastrophe. Everything was fine with the front of the house missing, but the downed jumbo jet was streaching it. Tom Cruise slept through that? The cars also not only still operable, but has not a scratch on it. No debris, not even dust, despite being mere feet from the crash. There's even a open area to allow it to pull out.
Suspension of disbelief has pretty much sunk.
By this time, I'm fidgeting in my seat while they're on the road. "Hey I know, every major city is under attack, lets go to Boston. No aliens there."
We have the scene with the corpses in the river. Had the SoD been still intact, it might have been chilling. It was just there. I'm usually affected by these things, I wasn't. Many started laughing here and through out the film. I wasn't the only one ripped out of it.
Then his son wants to join up with the army. Why? Maybe because he dad didn't mention the reporters comment on nothing being able to stop the tripods? His son seems to think otherwise. At least the line about wanting to offload the kids was good.
You then have them swamped by people entering a town. I guess that mechanic works wonders since that the worlds only working car. This scene is at least somewhat believable. There's a visual goof though. Someone throws something at the windshield which hits it high. The hole's in the center for some reason. The resulting gunplay scenes were pretty good.
As they walk to the fairry, we are treated to one of the more memorable shots in the film - The Flaming Train. I'm told it's reminascent of the Mars Attacks flaming Cows. It's been awhile, so I can't comment. Still, it's an awesome shot. One wonders why most people aren't particular spooked by it though. Wide eyes is all we get.
The Fairry scene. You're usual, "There's room for more" moment. Tom meets some women he supposedly knows. We're supposed to care when she and her daughter are, predictably, left behind. I'm still not sure how Tom got by. Tom's son displays some courage and humanity in being the ONLY person to climb the ramp to help others. We're then threated to an underwater tripod. I made a quick joke at this moment, "We're sorry, but you let Tom Cruise onboard". The boat gets capsized, and we see Tom and crew jump overboard, and have a car fly right at them. Somehow, despite the camera work suggets otherwise, it doesn't hit them full on, and merely drags them underwater breifly. One really gets the impression that no harm can befall Tom Cruise. He's merely in the wrong place, but at the right time.
They stumble to shore, and we are treated to memorable moment two(or three or four depending). Tripods, in the background, vaporizing survivors. One walks painfully close. Having no dialogue or plot to muck it up, it's a great mood piece. Like the train, it is keeping the tone together, so that the film is still bearable.
Eventually, they walk upon an army attack. One again, Rob acts like an idiot. "I need to go". Cruise stumbles after him, trying to convince him to stay. While this is happening, two people attempt to kidnap the daughter. Even though Cruise is within eyesight, they can't seem to get it that she's not abandoned. Still, it's a good scene, apart from the unextrodinary dialogue. Cruise is basically forced to choose. This though however, didn't really occur to me while watching. It was a comment someone else made on another forum. What I did like is the quiet moments where you saw choppers over head, tanks advancing, and an orange sky. It's another mood moment.
After leaving Rob for dead, they decide to take shelter with a guy weilding a shotgun. Seems logical.
Our first look at this "savior" is badly done. He looks like a crazy rapest. I'd probably take my chances with the aliens.
We see another, "I'm a bad dad" moments where Tom knows none of the lullibies his daughter wants to hear. It's one of the few touching moments. That is, until he starts sings "Little Duece Coup". Then the scene becomes a bit unintentionally funny.
What follows is a basemant seqeunce which does next to nothing. We get theories on why they're hear, that they've been planning for a million years. So Tim Robbins is insane. We don't know him, so we can feel sympathetic at the loss of his family. Kind of like the woman at the fairry.
So they're locked in a basement with a guy who wants to take on the invasion with a shotgun for god knows how long. In the meantime, the aliens begin terraforming.
The whole EYE scene was way too long to be really suspenseful, and since we know Tim is insane, we're not surprised in the least that he'd want to take a hatchet to it.
The aliens