I was astonished at just how good this was. It is, in essence, a distillation of the more interesting parts of H.G. Wells's original work The War of the Worlds -- the part where the war has been lost and the narrator goes through the ruins, encounters and interacts with other survivors, and dodges alien mop-up crews until the "happy ending." I also want to talk about the intense work of C. Thomas Howell as the lead. He carries this film; his work here is raw and powerful. Other reviewers may have let themselves be distracted by the quality of the special effects, but be assured that, while not great, they're not distractingly bad, either. It's a shallow viewer indeed who would trash this film out of hand because the alien fighting machines don't look as if they'd spent a hundred million dollars animating them. This film is well worth your time.
Review of War of the Worlds
