it was a well-made film. shyamalan is a good director -- the film did a great job of creating mood, and he appears to be *really good* at directing kids (the little girl in particular was stunning). all the acting is good. i was tense, i was scared, i jumped, but the whole time i was also thinking "um... and?"

i do think it totally captured that "something big has happened must watch television must consume information must keep lid on emerging hysteria" thing. and yeah, it admitted that it was "war of the worlds", but ... *shrug* it engaged me at the time but not afterwards. i had a similar problem with spielberg's "empire of the sun".