It’s hard to guess where Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds first went wrong. Were the filmmakers thinking that the story from a classic novel would simply translate into a successful film? Or were they presuming that by putting superstar Tom Cruise in the leading role and too-cute-for-words Dakota Fanning in a supporting role, they could justify nearly two hours of nonsense? Or maybe it was Steven Spielberg himself thinking that with his track record of generally good films, he could put anything into the theaters and people would flock to it, no matter how good or -- in this case -- bad it is? Most likely it was all of the above. The result? This 2005 version of H.G. Wells’ classic novel is one of the biggest box-office disappointments that I can remember.

But while War of the Worlds bombs quite spectacularly as the summer’s biggest blockbuster, it’s not a complete washout. The special effects -- and there are lots of them -- are amazing, even astonishing at times, and become new benchmarks for realistic computer-generated effects. For example, when the aliens lay waste to the humans it’s done with some of the most detailed onscreen destruction we’ve ever seen. As for the acting, it’s not all that bad either. Tom Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a divorced man who has been a lousy father and is now forced to protect his children at all costs. Dakota Fanning, who plays his daughter Rachel, is decent too, although she doesn’t have to do much but look cute at the appropriate times and scream loudly when the aliens terrorize her. Frankly, none of that’s a problem. The problem is that this version of War of the Worlds has no story, and that, in a nutshell, is why it fails so miserably, despite the star power and the enormous special-effects budget.

That lack of a story subjects the audience to scene after meaningless scene, albeit well acted, each five to ten minutes long, scenes that end with another five minutes of over-the-top, awe-inspiring, special-effects-laden chaos, usually involving Tom Cruise’s running away from the aliens with his family following behind. When the end finally happens, it sort of just does, and for reasons I’m still not sure of. The only thing I know is that neither Cruise’s Ray nor any of the other humans have any impact on the outcome. Ray, at least, can stop running, and perhaps Spielberg, now that this mess is over, can look to his next project for some redemption.

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