OK, now that I have more time, I want to delve into exactly why I found this movie so odd. Mel and I were just flipping channels last night and the movie was starting. We didn’t know what it was about and decided to keep it on and see what happened. The beginning was interesting, lots of questions and intrigue with each strange event in the movie. I think they did a good job delivering the enormous killer robot machine things, but that’s where it turned odd. From that point forward, everyone was running for their lives and most were not succeeding. Tom cruise and his kids kept managing to just keep out of the hands of the life sucking tripods. I was anticipating some kind f hero situation. I figured the opening to the movie had to be of some relevance to the story, but the fact that he was a crane operator in a shipyard had nill to do with the actual plot.
I kept thinking that each apex of action was going to turn things around and they would figure out how to defeat the purveyors of death, but no, they just kept running. At one point the son decided that he needed to be in the fight, he kept trying to get in the military convoys that passed occasionally. Eventually Cruise let him go (to keep his daughter from being taken away) and the next scene made you think he died…within minutes of leaving.
Things keep happening, people keep dying and then all of the sudden, the creatures start loosing it. They start showing weakness and eventually the military is able “kill” one. Then Cruise and his daughter, whom he has been trying to keep safe the whole time manage to make it to Boston, where Mom is supposed to be. They walk up to the house and there she is, waiting at the front door. Then the older boy appears, somehow he managed to make it out alive, but there was NO explanation.
The End
This must have been written by the Swiss, because there were all kinds of holes in this movie. Like, how come the block Mom was on in Boston looked basically normal when the rest of the world was practically destroyed? Or, what’s the deal with the kid…how did he make it out. Or, why do I care that he was an accomplished crane operator when it has nothing to do with the movie. Or, where did the killer robots come from.
On that, there was this woman that showed Cruise a tape of the alien things “teleporting” via lightning down into the huge machines, which were buried underground at the time. Why were they buried?, where did they come from?, why did they come at all?
I don’t know, maybe this is why I am not much of a movie buff. I have an imagination, but my realistic side always seems to keep it at bay. If you liked it…good for you. I didn’t and we can agree to disagree…
-Kamen