Opening

73% World War Z Jun 21
78% Monsters University Jun 21
61% The Bling Ring Jun 21
60% Maniac Jun 21
100% A Hijacking Jun 21
66% Unfinished Song Jun 21
100% The Attack Jun 21
—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

Top Box Office

55% Man of Steel $116.6M
85% This Is the End $20.7M
50% Now You See Me $11.0M
71% Fast & Furious 6 $9.6M
38% The Purge $8.3M
34% The Internship $7.1M
62% Epic $6.3M
87% Star Trek Into Darkness $6.3M
11% After Earth $4.1M
78% Iron Man 3 $3.0M

Coming Soon

—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

War of the Worlds (2005)

tomatometer

74

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 250
Fresh: 185 | Rotten: 65

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds delivers on the thrill and paranoia of H.G. Wells' classic novel while impressively updating the action and effects for modern audiences.

70

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 14

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds delivers on the thrill and paranoia of H.G. Wells' classic novel while impressively updating the action and effects for modern audiences.

audience

45

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 31,022,289

My Rating

Movie Info

An ordinary man has to protect his children against alien invaders in this science fiction thriller, freely adapted from the classic story by H.G. Wells. Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a dockworker living in New Jersey, divorced from his first wife Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) and estranged from his two children Rachel and Robbie (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin), of whom he has custody on weekends. On one such visitation, looking after the kids becomes a little more difficult when, after a series of

Nov 22, 2005

$234.1M

Paramount Pictures - Official Site External Icon

Watch It Now

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

All Critics (252) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (185) | Rotten (65) | DVD (31)

Spielberg's calculations turn out to be more prominent than any effects they could possibly produce, and the less pretentious 1953 version by producer George Pal emerges as more likable.

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film succeeds as pure sensation, an exacting distillation of fear.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds is huge and scary, moving and funny-another capper to a career that seems like an unending succession of captivations.

May 12, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Magazine
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Overall, the film is too lacking in feeling to provide a recognizably human experience.

July 14, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Observer
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a thrilling ride...[but] this bountiful pot of signifiers leaves a caustic aftertaste.

July 7, 2005 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic IconTop Critic

War of the Worlds is taut, gripping and surprisingly dark filmmaking.

July 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An unstoppable juggernaut of action and anxiety that will have you blundering from the cinema in a state of nervous exhaustion. Don't expect any soft drink promotional tie-ins with this summer blockbuster.

May 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

War of the Worlds is that most rare of screen adaptations - a film that is faithful to its origins and at the same time, its own separate creature. The first half is better than the second, but what a first half.

March 7, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment (1)
ComingSoon.net

Alien invasion thriller too scary for young kids.

December 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

so impressive in so many ways that it makes the frustration over its miserable final moments that much harder to bear

August 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer | Comment (1)
Cinema Writer

...in its own right it works well enough most of the time to pass an entertaining couple of hours.

May 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

An exciting, intense, gruesome, and awfully subversive piece of science fiction escapism...

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed
Cinema Crazed

See it, but lower your expectations.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment (1)
Urban Cinefile

great flick from spielberg

March 2, 2008

This is Spielberg at his unabashedly commercial worst %u2014 bland, unimaginative, and more interested in his bang than his brain.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | Comments (4)
BrandonFibbs.com

Spielberg blows stuff up better than anyone -- he proves himself the maestro of that by-now-degraded game.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

Just when it seemed like Mr. Spielberg might be maturing into a filmmaker with some much-needed cynicism, you realize he's still just out there rounding up the dollars.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound
Big Picture Big Sound

Spielberg flips the E.T. script with this sci-fi flick which reverts to the pulp fiction notion of aliens as the enemies of earthlings.

June 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Princeton Town Topics
Princeton Town Topics

Reconfirms Spielberg as a master of action, here seamlessly integrating spectacular visual magic into the most mundane and familiar settings.

February 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

Like disasters in real life, the film hits you in the gut with a vision of catastrophe, and leaves you to sort out what it all means.

November 17, 2006
Christianity Today

Spielberg creates an alien invasion movie that can be labelled the antithesis to the likes of Independence Day or the ilk. The reason? The personal perspective.

October 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Dark Horizons
Dark Horizons

The film is dark and bleak with little real sense of wonder--the thing that should be Spielberg's forte.

October 29, 2006 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews
rec.arts.movies.reviews

click to read review [Greek]

September 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses
Movies for the Masses

Audience Reviews for War of the Worlds

This contemporary update of War of the Worlds is a lot better than most people say it is. 2/3 of the movie is some of the most atmospheric,suspenseful, and intense stuff that Spielberg has made in quite a long time. The problems come during the final 40 or so minutes. The movie does such an excellent and effective job of channeling 9/11 and War on Terror fears, paranoia, and anxiety, and then remembers that it's supposed to be a summer action blockbuster and jarringly becomes a cliched actioner with a schmaltzy and sentimental ending typical of almost all of Spielberg's work. Seeing as how much and love and respect the man, I can't bring myself to hate on him too much for this, but thankfully what is done right still manages to save the movie from totally sucking. With Munich Spielberg (for once) made a movie that was completely adult and serious, and avoided sentimentality-and that movie was absolutely brilliant. This came so damn close to reaching that same level, and was so close to being a masterpiece....and I don't know why it was deemed necessary to not stick with it. I only just realized that this came out a bit before Munich, but still.... Anyways, this film does feature some spectacular moments..especially the action scenes. That I used to own a van that looked 99.9% just like the one Cruise drives around in makes me like this movie in spite of it's faults. The acting is better than average, and the camera work is top notch. Give this one a chance. It's really good, which normally is fine, but it should have been excellent.
June 9, 2006
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

With War of the Worlds director Steven Spielberg proves that he is one of the top directors working with huge tentpole type Hollywood films of today. Here is a blockbuster that defies all the expectations of it's kind and manages to be scary, poignant, entertaining and visionary at the same time. There is definetly more than meets the eye here and Spielberg has much more in his sleeve that on the surface would seem.
This time you can forget the friendly aliens of Close Encounters of the third Kind, or that sweet and good natured E.T who won over the hearts of millions of people around the world. Spielberg has gone into more darker waters and presents his aliens as a blood drinking doomsday machines with nihilistic need of destruction. Their only purpose seems to be killing and taking our world over.
What surprised me the most is the clever way that Spielberg makes direct political references to holocaust and 9/11 with his film. Grey ash filling the air, people running for their lives in a panic and everyone desperately trying to survive from the mass scale butchering reminds me a lot of Spielberg's own Schindler's List. In a way War of the Worlds is as much a holocaust film as Schindler's List is. Therefore i found it as much as political film as it is sci-fi-film
Brutality of this level might come as a surprise for some viewers, but those more familiar of Spielberg's work should not be surprised. With films like Empire of the Sun, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List or Minority Report and A.I., he has glimpsed more darker side of his mind before and now War of the Worlds joins among those films as a one of the most darkest, if not even the darkest, of his films to date. Actually this is the closest that Spielberg has ever come to horror genre and when you think of it, this is pure horror film at it's core.
There were moments when i was absolutely terrified and on the edge of my seat while watching it's horrifying beauty. From the point when Spielberg let his bloodthirsty aliens free, the film never let it's viewer off the hook and keeps us riveted till the credits roll. He has abitlity to create menace without showing too much for the viewers. There are many more terrifying moments in this film than we are used to see in other of todays horror films and Spielberg handles them with his assured hand.
War of the Worlds is technically and visually undisputed work of art. Janusz Kaminski's camerawork is simply outstanding and together with Spielberg he creates fantastic set-pieces that are outstanding to watch. For example there is this great moment when we see the main characters driving in a car and the camera swoops around them with a one long take creating a wonderful suspense into that moment. John Williams, who is also one of the most important work partners with Spielberg, delivers one of his most effective and darkest scores to date. Spielberg himself instead show many other directors how to do this kind of film. He is one of those rare directors who can make us in the audience care about his characters even when the whole world is getting blown away by tripods.
When it comes to acting, Tom Cruise delivers believable and complex performance as a flawed father here. Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin are very good as his children in jeopardy. Together they all three form a family which is authentic and one that audience will most certainly root and care for. There is also Tim Robbins in a disturbing role as a man who has lost his himself in the middle of all the desperation and destruction.
If you love sci-fi or horror or just enjoy great entertainment overall, then here is a perfect film for you. It might not be nothing new or original but it is pure, if a bit hollow, entertainment made with skill.
May 9, 2009
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

    1. Rachel Ferrier: Are we dead?
    – Submitted by Claudia S (14 months ago)
    1. Narrator: From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this earth. By the toll of a billion deaths, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet's infinite organisms. And that right is ours against all challenges. For neither do men live nor die in vain.
    – Submitted by Rocky F (15 months ago)
    1. Robbie Ferrier: Is it the terrorists?
    2. Ray Ferrier: No... this came from someplace else.
    3. Robbie Ferrier: What, you mean like Europe?
    4. Ray Ferrier: NO, ROBBIE! NOT LIKE EUROPE!
    – Submitted by Alejandro O (18 months ago)
    1. Ray Ferrier: [inspecting Rachel's splinter] It's gonna get infected.
    2. Rachel Ferrier: No it won't. When it's ready, my body will just push it out.
    – Submitted by John B (19 months ago)
    1. Rachel Ferrier: I'm allergic to peanut butter.
    2. Ray Ferrier: Since when?
    3. Rachel Ferrier: Birth.
    – Submitted by Andrew P (20 months ago)
    1. Ray Ferrier: Don't worry honey, lightning never strikes twice... oh! [lightning strikes second time]
    – Submitted by Baurushan J (21 months ago)

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for War of the Worlds yet.

What's Hot On RT

24 Frames
24 Frames

Pictures from a zombie nation

Blue Jasmine
Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen in San Francisco

<em>The Hobbit</em>
The Hobbit

See the Desolation of Smaug trailer!

Summer Scorecard
Summer Scorecard

Where does This Is the End rank?

Latest News on War of the Worlds

December 1, 2011:
Tom Cruise Confirmed for All You Need Is Kill
Or "We Are Mortals." Whatever it's called, he'll be fighting aliens.
October 10, 2011:
Tom Cruise in Talks for We Are Mortals
The Hollywood Reporter's sources say Doug Liman is eyeing Cruise for the lead in his sci-fi war...
August 11, 2008:
20 CGI Classics - From T2 to Batman Begins to WALL-E
We showcase 20 films which have employed Pixar's pioneering software RenderMan to create some of the...

Foreign Titles

  • La Guerre des Mondes (FR)
Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile