War of the Worlds

Very disappointed!! I expected a to be blown away by the master storyteller Spielberg and his new epic but it just didn't happen. I mean, the effects are great but hey where's the STORY? Within 10 minutes, the aliens appear killing everything in sight, everyone runs around screaming for two hours and then NO ENDING. If you are not familiar with the story, you might not even understand how the Aliens die! The subplot of estranged father Cruise trying to connect with his kids is just soapy nonsense and doesn't need to be in this movie. Maybe this is a relationship problem Spielberg has with his own son? I really didn't get it. It was like the whole movie was Act 2 and they decided Act1 and Act3 were not needed. I can only go for 5 points, all for effects. Spielberg just mails this one in. I thought he was back on track after Minority Report which was a great film, but nope, he's not the prodigy filmmaker he once was. This could've been done by any action director, nothing special about it.