War of the Worlds Movie Review

Just got back from opening night of WofW and let me just say, it was well worth the $6.50 student discounted ticket price.

With the exception of the first few minutes, the action runs non-stop from the outset. War of the Worlds is very similar to the first Jurassic Park movie and Saving Private Ryan in that they each have many of those really intense tap-your-feet in suspense moments when you're wondering how the main characters are going to avoid/kill the bad guy. Classic Spielberg.

The other aspect of this film I liked is that there's no grand scheme explanations about the motivation for the attacks or birds eye vantage points of the action. Everything takes place from the view point of the main character; there's just no one around to tell you the why, the how, etc...All you know is that some really big metal walking alien thing is trying to kill you, so you better just run and hide. That definitely makes you relate more to the characters because you can imagine yourself running in panic and not having any information about what the hell is going on as opposed to sitting in on an emergency Cabinet or Joint Chiefs meeting and talking to the President or the head of the CIA.

Of course they are a few parts that leave you wondering. Like why are some humans just flat out killed while others are harvested (maybe I missed something)?

Why would an alien race, or anyone for that matter, make their killing contraptions in their own likeness? I mean, if we invade another planet would we make giant metal robots that look like Mike Tyson or Hulk Hogan or Dick Butkis and use them to kill the aliens?

Just by finding us and landing here we all know the aliens are smarter than us. That goes without saying. But why, in just about every movie of this type are they always physically stronger than us or have some sort of crazy power? These aliens are so intelligent that they've created a civilization capable of a planet-wide invasion of another civilization thousands of light years away. I would think such aliens would be big brained weaklings. Advanced beings don't need all that strength, they would just use their brains to compensate. I mean just look at three primates species. Gorillas are the strongest, and least intelligent. Chimpanzees not as strong as gorillas but their more intelligent. Then you have us. We're the most intelligent, but the least strong. So why would it work a different way on an alien planet?

I guess you should not insert logic where it doesn't belong.