This is the 138 million dollar screen version of the HG Wells classic shot 72 days in New Jersey and it looks the part. But that’s the beauty of it. It reflects a real down-to-earth uncertainty of an average-Joe dockworker (Tom Cruise) in a town where the fear of the unknown looms after aliens land. Cruise is a deadbeat dad by day whose two kids just happen to be with him the weekend of the attack (just an ordinary day in the life of a divorced father). Dakota Fanning is his daughter and Cruise has less than two hours to redeem his character to hero. He does. Everything falls into place simply because director Steven Spielberg knows his stories of abandonment and aliens mixed together. He’s been doing it since “E.T.” and “Close Encounters” and continues here with a sense of everyday fury. “War of the Worlds” has the feeling of mass hysteria that Spielberg first brought to the screen in “Jaws”, although this one is his darkest tale yet – not for children under age 13. Cruise uses a natural intensity, and even though it’s about descending tripod creatures, the first thing his daughter asks in this generation is “are we being attacked by terrorists?” A summer blockbuster must see.