The most unrealistic thing about Steven Spielberg’s 2005 War of the Worlds remake is that Tom Cruise plays a character named Ray. Given all the heroic leads Cruise has played, thinking of him as a Ray seems impossible. Ethan, Peter, and even John are all fine for Cruise. But he’s no Ray. It feels like an unintentional nod to the “Martian heat-ray” weapon so prevalent in the 1953 movie and H.G. Wells’ original 1898 book.
