War of the Worlds

* SPOILER ALERT *

Now this was some scary shit, yo. Nothing like alien MFs in their tripod-thingies vaporizing terrified humans from New Jersey to scare the living daylights outa you. This blockbuster however felt very routine, such as the fact that our protagonists are the luckiest people on Earth. At one point I thought, oh, so this is the formula of the blockbuster movie, I have to remember this when I make one. I can make my heroes annoying but lucky and most of my audience will still forgive me.

There was a bit of a mishap at the theater where I watched this (Loews Lincoln Center). We had an EMP-like moment at the end of the film and the screen went blank, so I missed the last two or so minutes of it. How fitting, since it enabled me (and the rest of the audience) to actually boo when the credits came out. I got a replacement ticket, but I'll just use it for another movie. I'll just sneak in the multiplex to see the stuff I missed.

This was also officially the last Tom-Cruise-starred film I will ever see. There were some moments where I felt that he was even more annoying than the little girl. Now that he is the new Michael Jackson, I can't deal with Tom anymore. War of the Worlds was classic Spielberg with a generous mix of laughs and terror -- but you can't help but feel that you've seen all this before.