The George Pal version is ok. It was good for its time. The closest film that resembles that Wells book is Steven's film. There was a direct to DVD one that is almost page by page adaptation but its horrible. Look it up. I think the title is "H.G. Well's War of the Worlds". The CGI is horrible, it looks like a old Sega CD or playstation game.

I didn't like Cruise and the script could've have better but I liked the direction. On the subject on CGI. I don't 100 % hate but there are some limitations. The guys at ILM are masters of special effects but it seems like there two types of CGI. There's the Lucas CGI which I dislike because things look cartoony and EVERYTHING including the floor is CGI. Then there's CGI where the object looks life like. CGI can be beautiful or visionary and sometimes it can look like shit. Compare A.I. to Phantom Menance, and the special effects are from the same company.

With the CGI in War of the Worlds, not everything is CGI. The scene where the people are running away from the heat ray is an art itself. I like CGI that is blended into normal real world footage and you don't even notice it.

My favorite scene is the river crossing scene where we see a glow at the top of the hilltop and then the Tripod comes over and blares its horn (which is just eerie).

This movie is kinda of a background movie. You really don't give a shit about the characters but the action is worth.

I liked that Steven made two homages to the George Pal version. At the end when the alien's hand is crawling out of the tripod is right from the 53' version. In the last scene the grandparents are played by Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, the two main characters from the 53' version Clayton Forrester and Sylvia Van Burren.

While the Pal one is a neat little B-movie, the new is scarier and more exiciting. The characters weren't that great but you can easily just skip past the talking scenes. Tim Robins was perhaps the greatest character.