War of the Worlds 2005

It looks great. It looks real. I was genuinely nervous and scared for their safety. Spielberg is so good at turning ordinary things into threats here. A strange light, a distant horn, even a moment of silence can suddenly make you uncomfortable because you know something terrible might be coming. And Tom Cruise really is the perfect casting for anything that involves running. There’s one continuous shot that I still don’t know how Spielberg pulled off. The camera moves around the characters and vehicle while still interacting with what looks like a real environment, and I kept wondering how Spielberg actually achieved it. I assume there are hidden stitches, background replacements, or digitally combined elements somewhere in there, but whatever technique they used, the illusion is incredibly smooth. The scale of the sets and the sheer number of extras are insane too. The military sequence on the hill especially works for me because it briefly shifts the perspective from one family trying to survive into this larger desperate human resistance against something overwhelmingly superior. I think this has the same kind of character study as Disclosure Day (2026), where Spielberg seems interested in showing how ordinary people would react during an invasion. Panic, curiosity, selfishness, fear, desperation. Reminds me also of Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022), where people who are supposed to run away from danger keep stopping to watch the spectacle instead. It was really great for me until it became more philosophical when they hid inside the man’s bunker. And the ending also feels rushed, it felt anticlimactic.