Awesome

A really quite bad film with a few inspired set pieces, which seems to be all Spielberg can deliver these days.

Spielberg again plays the family-in-crisis card, the external menace being as usual little more than the means of overcoming familial problems. Narrative quirks suggest script or editing problems, especially the odd disappearance and reappearance of characters, and the very perfunctory conclusion. The latter may have been caused by anxiety that Wells's mechanism for defeating the aliens was too well known, the filmmakers not wishing to alter this aspect of the tale, yet unwilling to draw it out.

A great action packed disaster flick. Tom Cruise is OK as the lead, but it's the storyline and disaster scenes that really make this film. Some scenes in particular really stand-out, and without giving too much away some scenes are also a tad boring. Dakota Fanning is also very good as young Rachel as is Justin Chatwin as Robbie. Overall it's an action packed film well worth checking out :)

This would have been a decent, albeit repetitive, ride if not for the obnoxious kids. When your script consists of a father shouting his kids names ad infinitum, wouldn't that clue you into this becoming annoying for viewers? At least when Tim Robbins showed up I was able to have a good laugh. He seems stable and trustworthy, right?

Wanted and needed more.

Despite it's many moments of Spielberg brilliance, the story doesn't hold up to closer scrutiny. Machines buried for millions of years, 10 meters beneath the streets of every major city, only for the aliens to be as silly as the ones in Signs?! Still, seen isolated, certain scenes are brilliantly set up. Pure Spielberg masterclass. So if you can handle a silly plot and annoying kids, give it a go.