I saw it last night. I usually try to defend a movie and pick out the good bits, but my fierst words as the credits rolled were 'that was shit'. I didn't enjoy it, I didn't get into it. I agree with every single point (positive and negative) made by MeBeJedi. One other thing though that he missed - they made this huge deal out of nothing electrical working, even Super-Tom's cell phone, then in the next scene there is a guy filming the tripod on his video camera!!! Maybe he got the Super-Mecahnic who fixed the car that Tom steals to fix the camera too.
And I personally found Dakota Fanning to be irritating. I was hoping she would get zapped by an alien, but obviously that was never going to happen. Spielberg - I am very disappointed in you. Everybody disses George Lucas but his last film was better than yours.
Signs told the same story much better. If Signs had included a few shots of tripods and the bacteria ending, it could have been called War of the worlds and would have been a far better take on the story.