Visuals were good, but poor direction and effort. - War of the Worlds Reviews

Good visuals, but what happened to the story. Let?s start with the little things. As the movie starts everyone sees a storm coming. Cruise gets the idea to watch it from the back yard to get a better view. Then like dominoes, the other families start to go into their back yards. It starts at Tom?s house and goes down the street one by one. I thought I was watching a Cingular wireless ?more bars? commercial. Then as everyone sees the storm of a lifetime approaching, not a single person takes down the laundry that is hanging on the clothesline. (Every house has laundry on the line, but not one person takes theirs down.) Then after an electromagnetic pulse hits, nothing works. That I can believe, but yet the one thing that does still work is this guy?s camcorder. Afterwards, they get to safety where the power still works, but does anyone turn on the news or a radio to find out what?s going on to get a plan for safety? No! Then as they try to drive to a Ferry to cross a river, everyone attacks the Tom?s car only. Breaking out the windows and trying to kill them to get it, but when Tom gets to the ferry there are other working cars there and I did not see another car that had damage. Later, as the military is taking up a battle position on top of a ridge to fight the aliens, there appears to be more civilians running towards the battle than away from it? Come on, after all the destruction everyone has already seen! There were other similar situations like the ones just mentioned, but you get the idea. The writing and direction is flawed to say the least. Lots of action, but no story; unless Spielberg was creating a story about the dumbest but luckiest family in the world!