That it was a return to horror film style by Mr. Spielberg helped this movie. Science fiction movies tend to be more action oriented today. Scary sci-fi is an untapped genre; it's good to see someone trying to make it work. I say trying because it wasn't particularly scary.
I'm reminded of the Orson Welles 1938 radio show. It was so scary, that people killed themselves in fear.
It's interesting to me that Spielberg spent 132 million dollars making this movie. Industrial Light and Magic made the aliens look about as good as you're going to get on a movie screen today. The sound shakes my house when the giant alien machines destroy a city block. Decent acting and cinematography round out a fairly well made and enjoyable picture. Why wasn't it scary?I mean, Orson Welles scared the crap out of people talking on the radio. This movie shows the aliens spraying ground up humans as a sort of fertilizer, and all it registered with me was "Hey, that's sorta cool."
The thing Spielberg and pretty much every film maker today has lost touch with is IMAGINATION. The aliens looked pretty cool, but there's really nothing he could have put on the screen that would have done your imagination justice.
I enjoyed the movie: 3 out of 4 stars. Even Tom Cruise did an OK job. However, the people who made this picture could learn something from that 1938 broadcast.
