Ray Ferrier lives and works as a dockworker in New Jersey while his ex-wife and estranged children live in Boston. During a routine weekend visit from his kids, a strange lightning storm passes through his neighborhood that shuts off all of the electronics in the area. As the city tries to get the power going again, a strange group of gigantic machines emerges from the ground and begins to terrorize the city. As the rest of the world reports similar phenomena, Ray takes his kids to Boston in an effort to seek refuge with his ex-wife and to be the protector his children need him to be.

This is probably the weirdest Steven Spielberg movie I’ve ever seen. It’s not even because of the aliens or the age of the original source material. The movie is just caught in that awkward mid-2010s era where CGI hadn’t really caught up with a master director’s ambitions and the modern action thriller movie hadn’t shaken off the 90s quite yet. Then there’s the fact that this is only a PG-13 rating. I think it could have benefited from a higher rating with some more violence or desperate situations for the characters. The casting is also really bizarre. Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning have great chemistry and are great for their roles, but Tim Robbins is totally out of place.

War of The Worlds is available to stream on Netflix.