Yeah, the ending was true to the book. But the question is, should it have been? The whole point of Wells' approach to science fiction was to come up with these fantastic ideas that had never been thought of before. For Spielberg to simply regurgitate the original War of the World ideas -- even if they were Wells' ideas -- is completely against the spirit of the book, and in my mind complete ruins the film... You're telling me that this alien race has all this advanced biotechnological machinery, but they don't understand virology? That they have these fantastic telescopic arms on their robots, but they didn't bother to give them heat sensors? Every science-fiction book (especially those that are heavy on the science) knows that it will likely become outdated at some point. That's the nature of the genre, and it makes true remakes almost an impossible endeavour. I would have been far happier if they had taken the general theme of an alien invasion and made a story that fits with what we know right now, rather than trying to pass off century-old ideas as still being accurate and relevant.
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