Oh, it's a shame when people draw parallels between the War of the Worlds and Independence Day. Both films are great, but the War of the Worlds is better. Why? I will answer.
In NAM, everything is too unrealistic. Well, you can't defeat the mind of those who, by evolution, have walked you for several thousand years. And some computer genius built a virus that broke the entire system of humanoids. Nonsense. Even if the hacker was Jewish, this cannot be.
Steven Spielberg approached this problem in a different way. He showed us a real person, not a hero, with his bells and whistles in a difficult situation. The son is a stupid teenager with megalomania, and his daughter is a hysterical girl. Dakota Fanning is generally well done. I was so angry with her the whole film, and her ears hurt. I was glad to see Tom Cruise as a simple hard worker. By the way, it looked good, otherwise Ethana Khanty was already fed up.
The aliens are cool caught. All the same old shield, not permeable to other people's rockets and a super-duper laser, incinerating any living creature. The tripods looked good. And I also liked the fighters diving onto humanoid cars, and of course, the Hammers. It looked cool.
In general, the whole film is a strain. Do you think what will happen next? Will the aliens crawl out or what else will the idiot daughter and son throw out? How much more patience will the hero of Tom Cruise have?
Suddenly I saw Tim Robbins in the frame. Cool fit. Few played, but how. Good turn of events. I am glad that Tom Cruise came out of it, although not with honor, but the only right thing for himself and his daughter in the first place.
Of course there are bloopers in the film. But I don't want to talk about them, since the film does not deserve it. And Steven Spielberg, too. And my avatar proves it once again.
War of the Worlds is a film for relaxation, very good and not empty, like some. Competent methods of the director, a good acting game, good camera angles and constant action, flavored with dramatic notes, will give you 2 hours of great time. And no more.