This retelling of the 1953 classic has a big budget and a lot of computer effects, and in general does a very good job. Tom Cruise may not be my first choice for an action hero, but he doesn't do too badly here. I think that's probably because the tale is told by what's happening around him and it doesn't depend too much on what he's doing.
Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is a New Jersey mechanic who seems to be fighting with life. His wife has moved on and his kids aren't too far from doing the same. But this weekend they are staying with him, so perhaps something will change. When Ray tries to get his son Robbie Justin Chatwin to play a game of catch, the ball goes through the window instead. I guess it won't be this weekend after all.
Later, Ray wakes to find Robbie has taken the car and that's just not allowed. What's worse is his daughter Rachel (the fantastic Dakota Fanning) is in a panic because a wild storm that is brewing. As Ray and Rachel watch, lightning like they've never seen strikes not far from where they are. Ray calms Rachel by telling her that lightning never strikes twice, so they'll be okay. Then lightning proceeds to strike the same spot dozens of times in a row. This might be a different kind of storm.
Before long, Robbie comes in, but without the car. It seems that everything has stopped working. Ray goes out to find out what's happening, only to find that some sort of tripod comes up out of the ground and starts killing people and destroying everything. Somehow Ray manages to make it home, only to find the dust of buildings, cars and even people covers him. That's when they decide to run.
Packing up whatever they can carry and stealing the only vehicle that seems to start, the family takes off, trying to find safety in the form of Ray's ex-wife. But for miles, all they find is more destruction. Then they find haven in the house where they expect to at least find someone - but nothing. Still, it's better than where they were, so they bunk down in the basement, only to be awakened by a violent screeching sound in the night, which leads them to hide even deeper in the hopes that they aren't being attacked yet again.
In the morning when the come out, they find that they weren't being attacked - a plane crashed nearly on top of them. A news van looking for food tells them that the tripods are all over, not just in New Jersey, and it looks like the planet is one big free-for-all. So Ray and the kids start off again, sticking to the back roads. But once they hit a small hamlet, the van gets stolen from them by a mob, and then it seems they will have to travel by foot.
The rest of the movie involves Ray, trying to connect with his kids, who just want their mom. It's sad to watch because he has no clue. As the tripods continue to decimate the countryside, they pick up the people and use them as fertilizer, to grow bizarre alien plants, which will presumably function as nourishment for them to live on for a while.
When Robbie takes off over a hillside to join in the battle, it's inspiring because he's found what he is called to do - and you'd expect that you'd never see him again, but in typical Hollywood fashion, you see him at the end, as Ray and Rachel make it to Boston and the sanctuary of the in-law's place there. That's where the real sadness sets in. Also because the tripods weren't defeated - they just sort of died off because of microbial infection. While Ray was able to take out one of them with grenades, the rest just died. A rather pathetic end. An excuse even.
At least the effects are pretty good.
Rated PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and disturbing images, but there's a pretty good amount of language too. You may want to keep your younger ones away from this one, as compelling as it may be to them.
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