War of the Worlds. And why not.

Went to see War of the Worlds tonight. It is a Stephen Spielberg film with Tom Cruise. There, I've just about said it all. If you are after a moving and complex narrative where characters develop amongst sparkling dialogue, with a sprinkling of romance and comedy, then you can leave the building now.

If you are after exploding buildings, gung ho action and plenty of screaming, then you might want to take a look. Two things I didn't like. Firstly the name on the tin is wrong. It is not a war. It is 100 minutes of being ground underfoot by the nasty aliens followed by a sudden happy ending (hope this isn't giving too much away folks). When I go abroad I make sure I've had all my injections. You'd think that when they go to another world the invaders would have done the same.

The second thing I didn't like was Tom's "daughter". She has obviously been to the old "Dr. Who assistant" school of acting, and took her role of not doing what dad said, gettiing into trouble as a result, screaming loudly, very loudly, and being rescued, extremely seriously. Rather tiresome I thought. Makes you appreciate Billy Piper in the new Dr. Who.

As an action film summer blockbuster "The War of the Worlds" is OK. But deep it is not. And nothing like as good as the book or the Jeff Wayne musical version (which quite literally rocks).