War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds
Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.
Kraine Opasen reviewedJune 20, 2025
"We always thought we’d see it coming. We were wrong."
Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is an underrated sci-fi masterpiece — a relentless, grounded vision of alien invasion that trades heroics for pure survival instinct. From the opening moments, the atmosphere is thick with dread, and once the Tripods rise, the fear never lets go.
Tom Cruise delivers a raw, desperate performance as a flawed father trying to hold his family together in a collapsing world. The chaos is seen through his eyes — intimate, disorienting, and terrifyingly real. Dakota Fanning adds an emotional heartbeat that makes the horror land even harder.
The sound design? Bone-rattling. The visual effects? Still jaw-dropping. And Spielberg’s direction? Masterful — turning every neighborhood into a battlefield and every quiet moment into something sinister.
People expected a blockbuster. What they got was a trauma-laced survival nightmare.
This isn’t just aliens — it’s human panic, helplessness, and instinct. And it deserves far more credit.