Paramount/DreamWorks
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Welcome to a new series, which we’re using to celebrate some of our favorite movies that were released during this same week of years long past. It’s a retrospective that won’t happen all the time, but it will take a look back at some of our favorite blockbusters and examine their impact then and now. This week, we’ll be looking back in time to War of the Worlds (2005), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Let the nostalgic trip begin!

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Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is especially relevant, not only because Tom Cruise is back in the news right now (with his recent divorce announcement and his new movie Jack Reacher coming soon), but because it’s a timeless story that resonates as much today as it did when it was first created. When Orson Welles read the story on the radio, he was so convincing that people who tuned in after the announcement that Welles was reading a story actually thought it was real, going so far in some cases as to shooting members of their own families to avoid having them captured by aliens. That’s the kind of intensity that Cruise and director Spielberg brought to their film adaptation, which is a two thirds of a great movie (I still think the very end has one of the biggest storytelling cop-outs in recent film history). The visual style, iconic imagery, and general feeling of being caught in something out of control and much bigger than all of us struck a chord with audiences who still had the destructive events of 9/11 still on our minds.
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Warner Bros.
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I feel like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is unfairly looked down on in the Terminator series. Sure, it has problems, but when some audiences were disappointed with this entry as they walked out of theaters the first week of July in 2003, little did they know that they’d be let down even more by the disastrous Terminator Salvation a few years later. T3 has some excellent action sequences, highlighted by a pre-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (in his last big role before taking political office) swinging from a crane truck that destroys half a city as it tears and smashes through buildings. It put Kristianna Loken on the map for a quick second as the T-X, the female Terminator sent back to kill John Connor (Nick Stahl, who has a bad habit of disappearing from rehab lately). Though it isn’t quite as good as Terminator 2 – seriously though, what action movie is? – and it doesn’t have the grime of James Cameron’s first Terminator movie, director Jonathan Mostow did a solid job and provided an entertaining third entry into this franchise. And, like Arnold, I’m sure those pesky machines will be back…
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DreamWorks/Warner Bros.
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The second film on this list from director Steven Spielberg, A.I. Artificial Intelligence actually stemmed from the mind of one of cinema’s other titan directors, Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick came up with the concept in the 70s, but wasn’t happy with the technology at the time and decided to wait until it caught up before he started filming. He eventually passed the rights on to Spielberg, and then he passed away in 1999, sparking Spielberg to finish the project in honor of Kubrick’s memory. It stars Haley Joel Osment as David, a humanoid robot programmed with the unique ability to love. It’s a tragic story that, like all the best science fiction, explores what it means to be human. Jude Law gives a memorable performance as Gigolo Joe, but this movie is all about Osment and his uncanny ability to portray a robot that on one hand is a soulless piece of plastic, but on the other desperately wants to be a real boy (just like in Pinocchio, a film referenced numerous times in this movie). Osment has certainly dropped off the radar after he grew out of his childhood cuteness, but I don’t think the careers of Spielberg and Jude Law have been hurting too much in recent years. Today, though, A.I. seems to be one of Spielberg’s most critically panned movies. It’s likely because it’s become somewhat fashionable to hate on Spielberg (in the same way it’s popular to hate on anything that gets massively successful), and also because this is one of the few movies that Spielberg actually wrote the screenplay for, making this a much more personal story for the acclaimed director.
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That’s all for this week. Sound off with your memories of War of the Worlds, T3, and A.I. in the comments below!