Tom Cruise takes on the Tripods in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi spectacle War of the Worlds. With our planet invaded by extraterrestrials hellbent on the destruction of mankind, everyman Ray Ferrier (Cruise) tries to keep himself and his kids alive long enough to get them from his home in New Jersey to their mother, who is staying in Boston. Along the way, the Ferrier clan is confronted by multitudinous alien attacks and situations of extreme peril. With a killer score by longtime collaborator John Williams and spectacular visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic, Spielberg helms this post 9/11 big budget, disaster film with his trademark blockbuster aplomb.
“With War of the Worlds [Spielberg] has made what is arguably one of the best 1950s science fiction films ever.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Steven Spielberg has made the anti-Close Encounters in War of the Worlds, a gritty, intense and supremely accomplished sci-fier about some distinctly unbenign alien invaders.” – Todd McCarthy, Variety
“There likely won’t be a more gripping film this year than Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds, which at its best glides along like choreography with a camera, slowly parsing out information while shrouding the rest in shadow and suggestion” – Scott Tobias, AV Club
