War of the Worlds (2005)
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. (Paramount Pictures)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Written By: H.G. Wells, David Koepp, Josh Friedman
Starring: Tim Robbins, Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Amy Ryan, David Harbour, Justin Chatwin, Yul Vazquez, Dendrie Taylor, Columbus Short, Daniel Franzese, David Alan Basche
Genres: Drama, Sci-fi, Suspense/Thriller, Action, Adventure
Franchise: War of the Worlds
Country: USA
Where to Stream
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War of the Worlds belongs to 53 collections
1. Based on a Book (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 21 stars)
2. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
3. Aliens (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 12 stars)
4. #1 at the US Box Office (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 10 stars)
5. Remake (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 9 stars)
6. Based On Novel (collaborative: moderated by tathiel - 7 stars)
7. Alien visitation (collaborative: moderated by djross - 7 stars)
8. Big-time Hollywood science fiction (public: djross - 7 stars)
9. Great Long Takes (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika - 6 stars)
10. U.S. Box office over 150 million (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 5 stars)
11. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)
12. Slant Magazine's Best of the Aughts (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 4 stars)
13. Over 10000 ratings on Criticker (collaborative: moderated by peyrin - 4 stars)
14. All-Time Worldwide Box Office over $200,000,000 (collaborative: moderated by QuickyAPI - 3 stars)
15. Worldwide box office over $500,000,000 (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)
16. Top 1000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 3 stars)
17. Alien Invasion (collaborative: moderated by mpowell - 2 stars)
18. Top 2000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 2 stars)
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24. LesInrocks - 100 meilleurs films de la décennie (public: Thegoodboy - 1 star)
25. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 10 (public: PeaceAnarchy - 1 star)
26. Movies that are not the only film adaptation of a book/play (public: EbelC - 1 star)
27. Annual top 5 worldwide box office, 1975 - 2022 (public: djross - 1 star)
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29. Metacritic - Generally Favorable Reviews (collaborative: moderated by sengir)
30. Stan Winston (collaborative: moderated by mwgerb)
31. John Williams (composer) (collaborative: moderated by djross)
32. Just Top Movies Public (collaborative: moderated by AlbertE)
33. Adapted from or based on a Radio Show (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer)
34. The War of the Worlds (1898) (collaborative: moderated by lisa-)
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Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 8 |  |
lauratron | 30 3rd |
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A bit of wood named Tom Cruise fights some aliens or something
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| 7 |  |
Paxton | 70 63rd |
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Under Steven Spielberg's tight direcBWWWAAAAAHHHH! I thought the creature design waBWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHH! Honestly, the whole sequence where his daughBWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! I thought that part was genuinely terrifying.
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| 7 |  |
BeeDub | 78 39th |
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Wherein aliens have technology centuries beyond our own, yet somehow completely forget about germs. (Yeah, I know it was in the novel, but it was anticlimactic there, too.) Even putting that aside, the screenplay is too sloppy to amount to much, and the characters are cardboard cutouts. Disappointing.
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| 5 |  |
vincente | 71 50th |
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| 5 |  |
ozymandius10 | 71 57th |
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It's not a completely horrible movie. The effects are good, and the acting isn't as bad as I've heard. The movie has problems (pacing, script, ending, etc.), but it's still a very decent viewing.
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| 4 | preachertom | 90 58th |
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There are some really strange and horrific things going on in this movie that bump it up onto the shoulders of a lot of other summer blockbusters and disaster movies. More importantly, there's a good balance between the macro (aliens invading) and the micro (family bonding) that could easily have been forgotten.
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| 4 |  |
TheDenizen | 40 17th |
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Eye-popping CGI is no excuse for not bothering to write a decent script.
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| 4 |  |
TonythePony | 59 29th |
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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 in to 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?
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| 3 |  |
AkumAPRIME | 70 29th |
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A) I hate Tom Cruise. but I try not to let that bother me. I mean, I LOVED minority report so... well anyway.
B) This movie had GREAT effects but...
C) the acting was subpar and
D) The story didn't do enough to prepare the user for the ending. It was too sudden to the movie folk. I read the story long ago, and felt much more satisfied with the ending then. Here, I felt it was shoved on me quickly.
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| 3 |  |
jimmynmu | 70 58th |
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I wish Spielberg had another shot at this one. I didn't mind that the setting had changed (although I would have preferred the original) and I didn't mind Tom Cruise or Dakota Fanning. The first three quarters is awesome, the last quarter is terrible. It's not even anything to do with the plot with the aliens, it's just how Spielberg handles the ending that made this movie less enjoyable for me.
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| 3 | soybomb42 | 87 77th |
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Exciting and thrilling and tense and nearly ruined by a completely awful ending.
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| 3 |  |
djross | 35 19th |
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Spielberg's post-9/11 exploit again plays the family-in-crisis card, the external menace being as usual merely the means of overcoming familial problems. Narrative quirks suggest script or editing problems, especially the odd disappearance and reappearance of characters, and the abrupt 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.
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| 3 |  |
Alex Watkins | 4 70th |
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Why did everybody nitpick this so friggin' much, anyway? I liked a ton; fantastic spectacle and I thought the human drama was believable and well-handled. Too bad Cruise is off his rocker, because he's pretty goddamn good in front of a camera.
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| 3 |  |
e_e | 5 5th |
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I could remake a more interesting version of this with stick figures!
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| 2 |  |
eveelun | 70 42nd |
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The film is excellent at capturing the horror of a sudden invasion of beings far more ancient, advanced, and ruthless than we are and the terror of humans in apocalyptic panic mode. The precociousness of Fanning wore on me, though, and the ending (not talking about aliens here) aggravatingly negates all the previous, well-done tension.
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| 2 | whomperize | 78 76th |
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We all know the ending was a bit of a cop-out, but this movie was really exciting to watch, and featured some unbelievable special effects.
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| 2 |  |
megladon8 | 70 50th |
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Entertaining and full of wonderous special effects. Surprisingly disturbing and violent - could make some uncomofrtable. Many horrible leaps in logic drag it down.
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| 2 |  |
Salomon | 75 82nd |
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one of the best spilberg's movie, because in this movie shows spielberg not the army tactics he shows a man what he can do for the life of his kids ..............
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| 2 |  |
Tripwyre | 62 46th |
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Excellent production design, some great acting and a handful of awe-inspiring action sequences save the film from its Spielbergian feel-good cop-out ending. Robbins shows up halfway through and steals the movie on a performance level, but his presence also slows down the pace a bit too much. What's excellent is the way Spielberg captures the real terror and manic desperation of such a situation -- even at its most ridiculous, the danger still feels palpable. Chatwin should have died.
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| 2 | Detonathor | 80 64th |
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If Spielberg hadn't gone for the annoying characters and the cop-out ending, this would have been a great movie. However, it's worth watching for the carnage on display.
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| 2 |  |
adouble | 60 31st |
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Starts off pretty promising, as the initial invasion scenes are really exciting and tense. Then for some reason, the movie decides to spend what felt like 3 hours in Tim Robbins' basement. It totally kills the flow of the movie, and the film never quite recovers from it. Add on to that a generally bland lead performance by Cruise and an thoroughly illogical ending and you end up with a dissapointment.
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| 1 | webfoot943 | 55 43rd |
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Spielberg is a fantasic filmmaker, with an unequaled eye behind the camera. Unfortunately, in "War of the Worlds", the script is not up to snuff. Considerably more enjoyable than "Day after Tomorrow", but apocolypse is still tough subject matter.
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| 1 |  |
Boromir | 84 83rd |
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Intensley enjoyable and could have been great but for the disappointing finale.
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| 1 |  |
MartinTeller | 85 84th |
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There's not much to War of the Worlds besides thrills and scares and explosions... the "loser dad" plotline is simply window dressing for the larger spectacle. But it's pretty good spectacle. The film is briskly paced, with the only nagging slowdown occurring when they meet Tim Robbins. Wonderful effects and sound design and staging.
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| 1 |  |
mrbeck | 60 25th |
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Oh my god... just when it was getting good, grenades start blowing sh*t up, Tom Cruise is getting all bad-ass... along comes the 2nd worst ending possible, next only to "And then he woke up and it was all a dream". If this had a different ending, it would have been pretty darned good.
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| 1 | ASyD | 75 54th |
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I really liked it...epic FX and good script, with the exception of the HORRIBLE sugarcoated family reunino thingie in the end...I really dont wknohow could Cruise get the anti-award for this role...hes actually pretty good ! ...damn Spielberg's political correctness, he should have raised more havoc upon the mankind !
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| 1 |  |
schnofel | 84 94th |
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Since it is useless as allegory or narrative, I call it a fever dream, an expulsion of terror through cinema.
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| 1 | svicciarelli | 85 50th |
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Riveting and entertaining except for the stretch with Tim Robbins which goes on too long. And the ending is weak.
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| 1 | teamaniston | 10 1st |
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besides really good visual effects.. it SUCKED!!!
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| 1 | silentmateo | 59 23rd |
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Look out! its an Alien that kills itself be landing on our planet
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| 1 |  |
fabfunk | 70 64th |
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Still undecided- is the 9/11 imagery warranted? Has some of the strongest and weakest sequences of Spielberg's career. Dubious grafting of the source material's ending, but Cruise is in fine form.
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| 1 |  |
cellophane | 88 66th |
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Filled with some truly terrifying visuals and a few great performances, War of the Worlds delivers some fantastic moments, even though it loses its footing at the end.
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| 1 |  |
yilb | 70 79th |
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You're going to see this for the special effects, right? Ok, good, since it has little to offer beyond that.
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| 1 | Loki | 70 52nd |
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A generic summer blockbuster. It's pretty fun.
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| 1 | Chili | 45 16th |
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Mindless
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| 1 |  |
BattleToad | 35 10th |
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It made me not care about humanity. The acting is terrible and the script is only part of the reason. I found the casting to be the biggest problem. Yes, I hate Tom Cruise, but even Dakota Fanning, who I usually like, was very annoying as a constantly screaming brat. C'mon Speilberg, you can't trick everyone into liking everything you do just because you've done great things in the past! Total crap!
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| 1 |  |
CitizenX | 45 38th |
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Tom Cruise sucked, Justin Chatwin sucked, Dakota Fanning was screaming all the time and the weirdo charakter Tim Robbins played didnt fit as well, among the worst Spielberg movies ever
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| 1 |  |
EmptySet | 7 10th |
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Usually you try to make the main characters likeable so that you're not hoping they would all just die.
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| 1 | pascallow | 10 6th |
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I really hated this Tom Cruise close-up, that's all it was actually, a T.Cruise colse up. A regular rape of Welles' story
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| 1 | easymac742 | 66 24th |
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Spielberg adapted the story faithfully. It's just not a story that I care for. Same goes for the ending. It's a little too much deus-ex-machina for my taste.
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| 1 |  |
Ayavaron | 20 10th |
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This film had way too many plotholes to be taken seriously. The acting and characterization work admirably but the plot simply doesn't hold up to a moment's thought.
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| 1 |  |
MattCarlson | 50 44th |
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Special Effects save it from absolute failure
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| 1 |  |
joseywales | 70 56th |
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Tom Cruise running for 90 minutes, yay!
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| 1 |  |
Suture Self | 8 81st |
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This movie is hated for reasons unknown to me. It's a perfect adaptation of Wells' book and the terrifying invasion sequences are the best of its kind. You guys realize Spielberg is at his best when he's directing genre movies on giant budgets, right?
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| 1 |  |
Mentaculus | 49 23rd |
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An engaging first act gives way to a whole lot of nothing - mostly angst and screaming, with no real resolution, moral or political. And did Spielberg homage himself (cabin probe = velociraptor)? Can he do that?
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| 1 |  |
Freder | 5 11th |
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Ye Gods, what a lousy movie. Cruise chews up the screen like the incompetent moron that he his, while Spielberg plods, plods, plods by the numbers without even providing much in the way of visual excitement. The characters all behave in completely idiotic ways and do stupid things for no other reason than to set up un-shocking shock scenes. The producers would have been better off adapting the book in period, rather than just updating and remaking Pal's (much superior) film version.
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| 1 |  |
nimno | 10 8th |
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A disappointment. Tom Cruise was...uh...oh just awful. I wouldn't watch this movie a second time.
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| 1 | Dustyd | 40 11th |
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This is my least favorite Spielberg film. I just thought it was boring and irritating.
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| 1 |  |
Shephard | 30 10th |
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Muddy and confused and staggering under the weight of a flimsy script and over-acting.
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| 1 |  |
critickerkaw | 70 14th |
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Because we didn't really get to know or care about the characters very much, the movie was much less suspenseful and horrible than it ought to have been.
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| 1 | howardru | 80 17th |
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Similar plot to original movie but with updated images. I still love the old original version.
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| 1 | rrevell | 68 17th |
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It's not good.
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| 1 |  |
Jeb | 23 14th |
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A terrible movie. Tom Cruise is a horrible actor here, along with the rest of the crew. Has some decent special effects and nice CGI, but overall a terrible remake.
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| 1 |  |
cult_of_same | 40 44th |
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Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are creepier than any alien.
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| 1 |  |
JacoIII | 35 32nd |
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Totally underrated sci-fi. Sure, it ain't perfect but I didn't even expect it to be average. Maybe this review is the result of low, low, low expectations but screw it. At least Spielberg (kinda, sorta) returned to his roots.
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| 1 |  |
naikou | 70 77th |
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Deeply underrated, due to different-than-the-original syndrome, and because the movie-going public has fallen out of love with Spielberg since A.I. The effects are fantastic, and the tension throughout the movie is well-handled. A lot of very good cinematography (the rain of clothing? The airplane crash in the middle of a suburban neighborhood?). If the ending wasn't so awful, it might be Spielberg's best.
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| 1 |  |
SirStuckey | 45 18th |
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Tom Cruise runs. Dakota Fanning yells. Justin Chatwin plays a cliched teenage boy who does the opposite of whatever his dad says. Steven Spielberg adds a lot of effects and gives us a sell-out ending.
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| 1 |  |
DavidBlast | 70 65th |
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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.
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| 1 |  |
Cinema_Asia | 55 19th |
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Spielberg falters in what he does best and that is manipulate the audience with his well worn film tropes. The entire film feels emotionally empty with really stupid moments that cater exclusively to the feel good crowd. The CGI would have possibly redeemed the lack of a script if we got more battle scenes.
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| 1 |  |
ehk2 | 16 20th |
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what always pissing me off is that even when aliens attack earth, americans achieve to turn it out a family drama
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| 1 | Mr. Film | 78 48th |
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War of the World has style. The thing is the scirpt could have gone better
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| 1 |  |
Matthew Parkinson (CineMarter) | 40 31st |
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War of the Worlds lives and dies by its characters. You're not going to get a poorly made movie from someone like Spielberg at this point in his career, but the screenplay didn't give him a lot to work with in terms of the people we're supposed to care about. It's a valiant attempt, but this is a film that just doesn't work. When you want to see a ten-year-old girl get abducted by the aliens everyone's working hard to run away from, you haven't done a good job.
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| 1 |  |
LookJabba... | 4 22nd |
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War of the Worlds is my least favourite Steven Spielberg film and it feels like a missed opportunity. I enjoyed the capturing of a sudden invasion and the film doesn't try to shoe horn in a backstory or unnecessary explanations. I just wanted and expected so much more. And I think Steven Spielberg is capable of so much more. Tom Cruise isn't an issue, nor is Dakota Fanning. But this film could and should of been epic and I found the overall experience and in particular the finale underwhelming.
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| 1 |  |
rihrey | 33 29th |
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robbie why the fuck would you leave your fucking family to go fight the aliens are you fucking stupid
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Displaying 1 to 250 of 494 total ratings: Prev | Next
| Average Percentile 35.97% from 15359 Ratings |  |