And if you think I’m dunking on it, I’m saying this because parts before it are so insanely raw. More than Spielberg would normally go for. The shot of the tripod on the hill after Cruise’s son disappears haunted me for days after seeing it in theaters.
And yeah, that gray-on-black John Williams score is bonkers. The tripod reveal with the synthetic choir or the timpani hits as panicked people rip the car apart is some of his best stuff from the 00s.
It’s probably my second favorite Spielberg film (after AI) from that era and it’s one of the best and most realistic reactions to 9/11 we ever got.