Steven Spielberg's version of the classic H.G. Wells story about an alien attack on Earth was released in theaters less than four years after 9/11. You can consider the timing a coincidence if you like. Either way it's hard to forget Spielberg's scenes of large scale destruction as seen through the eyes of a single family: a divorced dock worker (Tom Cruise) desperate to keep his kids (Justin Chatwin, Dakota Fanning) safe. It's a massive disaster movie with the intimacy of a character drama, infused with the emotional flourishes that have always been present in Spielberg's work and the sober maturity that marks his post-"Schindler's List" output.

-Geoff Berkshire