Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds is huge and scary, moving and funny-another capper to a career that seems like an unending succession of captivations.
Cinema Writer
August 17, 2010
so impressive in so many ways that it makes the frustration over its miserable final moments that much harder to bear
It's a thrilling ride...[but] this bountiful pot of signifiers leaves a caustic aftertaste.
ComingSoon.net
March 07, 2011
War of the Worlds is that most rare of screen adaptations - a film that is faithful to its origins and at the same time, its own separate creature. The first half is better than the second, but what a first half.
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.
New York Observer
July 14, 2005
Overall, the film is too lacking in feeling to provide a recognizably human experience.
Movie Metropolis
May 19, 2010
...in its own right it works well enough most of the time to pass an entertaining couple of hours.
An unstoppable juggernaut of action and anxiety that will have you blundering from the cinema in a state of nervous exhaustion. Don't expect any soft drink promotional tie-ins with this summer blockbuster.
Spielberg's calculations turn out to be more prominent than any effects they could possibly produce, and the less pretentious 1953 version by producer George Pal emerges as more likable.
