Perhaps due to his infamous public meltdown shortly prior to the film's release, Tom Cruise feels somewhat miscast as the "everyman" hero of Spielberg's modern-day H.G. Wells adaptation - and yet the film's' first half is nevertheless a highly effective apocalyptic fantasy, its floating tentacled invaders the stuff of nightmares thanks to top-notch visual effects work and Janusz Kaminski's haunting cinematography. Unfortunately Spielberg's bleak sci-fi vision makes a hard right turn into cornball territory in the final stretch, the director providing his audience with a feel-good denouement that feels very nearly like a betrayal of everything that's come before. Nevertheless, when "War of the Worlds" is good, it's very, very good - a visionary and frightening blockbuster with real brains, and one not so easily forgotten.

- Chris Eggertsen