8. Robbie Vs. Giant Martian Death Machines - War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds gave Tom Cruise another chance to frantically sprint about the screen, this time due to an alien invasion. These pesky tripods are wreaking havoc all over earth enacting the Martians' plan to turn all humans into fertiliser. Of course this wouldn't be a Tom Cruise vehicle if he didn't come out of it all right and all of the Martians realize that the common cold is their kryptonite and promptly die. Before this baffling conclusion we are presented with a family drama, the kids are with their dad (Cruise) when the attack begins and he decides to take them back to their mother's house where hopefully they will be safe. There's the sickly little girl, Rachel who gets ill at all the wrong times and Robbie the teenage angst machine that wants to kick some Martian butt. What's to be done about this? Most of the film sees him arguing with Tom Cruise and giving him a hard time. Typical broken home stuff but it starts to distract from the Martian issue. 'I know,' thought someone. 'Let's have him run head on into an attack against these towering death machines' This is all well and good, we all feel the sacrifice he has made as he yells and joins the military charge. I mentioned sacrifice because there is no damned way he would have survived this. Indeed this is what we are meant to believe until Tom Cruise and Rachel end up at his ex wife Mary Ann's house to find him there with nary a scratch on him. I appreciate that it's sometimes nice to have a happy ending, but unless Robbie inherited the Cruise running genes it feels like a huge cop out just having him waiting there at the end like nothing happened.