War of The Worlds.

Here is the briefest movie review in history:

I expected more from the film.
-- Cipriano --

I just got back from seeing the movie and I think I may have been a bit too hyped up about it, I expected it to be a bit better, I think.
The special effects were really quite excellent, they were probably my favorite thing about the movie. No, wait... Dakota Fanning was the best feature of the film. She is just brilliant in it.
I guess I felt that there was just not enough real good story behind this thing. Not having read the book by H.G. Wells, I was quite in the dark about the real story, but I mean here, the screenplay, it just did not work for me. I felt that the alien tripod monsters were too machine-like. What I mean by that is simply that there was not a clear idea of what/who was controlling them, nor of what they were after (other than the vaguely understood desire to kill all humans)... but WHY!
In the end I am still not sure of just how it is that they are defeated. And when Tom and Dakota escape from the clutches of one of these tripod-beasts, all of a sudden it is as though this one was the only one, and they are free to walk away from it... when previously, there were hundreds of the things stomping around. A lot of loose ends... and I don't mean the kind of loose ends that are meaningful and needful in a good story. I mean just.... loose.
However, before the movie started, there were the coming attractions, and I saw for the first time the trailer for the movie-verson of C.S. Lewis's book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Now THAT looks good! I will definitely be at the theatre on opening day, for that one.
I still have faith in the movies.
They still move me.
But this one, I am going to give it a measly 3 stars out of five.