War of the Worlds ***
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins Miranda Otto
Director: Steven Spielberg
Running Length: 1:57
MPAA Classification: PG-13

Average guy Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is just getting by. His blue collar job is enough to give him a very modest house in an OK neighborhood. After work one day, his ex-wife drops off the kids, Rachel (Fanning) and Robbie (Chatwin), for a weekend visit. He is a poor parent, and it is quickly evident.

When strange lightning strikes awaken long buried alien tripods, the world turns to chaos, and Ray and his family must run for their lives before they are vaporized with the rest of the city. The aliens are unstoppable, bringing destruction to every area the encounter, and things seem grim for humanity.

Speilberg set out to create the "event movie" of the summer, and is somewhat successful. Speilberg has yet to make a bad movie, and this one falls somewhere in the upper-middle of his resume. "War of the Worlds" provides almost non-stop action and amazing special effects. The story has been brought to modern times, but stays faithful otherwise to the source material. Told almost exclusively from Ray's point of view, we see what the average person would see in this situation. Of course, Ray gets up close and personal with some of the aliens, so there is plenty of action. The weakest point of the movie is the ending, but to be fair, it is true to the novel.

"War of the Worlds" pretty much delivers everything you would expect going in, and is a very entertaining summer movie. It is a hard PG-13 though, just missing an R rating for the violence. If you are looking for an entertaining popcorn movie, this is a good bet.