Every Tom Cruise Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Though Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds is an explosive, apocalyptic action film, Cruise doesn't play his standard kind of capable hero, but an everyman trying to keep his family together.

It's a solid role which allows Cruise to play a man more humanly vulnerable and flawed than other characters in his back catalogue, whilst also having some stand-out moments with his on-screen daughter (and frequent scene-stealer) Dakota Fanning.

That being said, the human drama of the story is massively dwarfed by the film's extensive action scenes and genuinely brilliant special effects, which help cover up the fact that the film's second half is nothing but a bombardment of sterile cliches and non-endings.