I went to see “War of the Worlds” last night, and I’m exhausted. I fought every alien and ducked every metallic tentacle. One hundred and sixteen minutes of unrelenting suspense, drama, and charged sci-fi action leave you no room to ponder your popcorn.

 If you’ve paid any attention to the Hollywood hype, you know that “War of the Worlds” is supposed to save what has been a lackluster box-office summer for the moguls. Given the movie’s sheer intensity and director-legend Stephen Spielberg’s artistic flair, this blockbuster makes up for all the other flops.

Sometimes the old stories are the best stories, and “War of the Worlds” goes back to 1898 when science fiction writer H.G. Wells penned his famous novel. In 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio version of “War of the Worlds” and caused a panic across the country. Listeners who missed the disclaimer thought a real alien invasion was taking place and behaved accordingly.  This latest Spielberg version takes full advantage of every special effect that 2005 technology offers to embellish Wells’s compelling story.

Crane operator Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) ends his day by meeting his ex-wife to collect his two children. Son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) would rather go to the dentist than spend time with Ray. They acquiesce to the divorce court rules and settle in as their mother (Miranda Otto) and her successful new husband head off to Boston to visit relatives. 

Moments later the aliens arrive, and the battle begins. The sheer terror and ultimately, the complete surrender to the inevitable, force our hand and make us contemplate a new reality. In a single flash, all the world’s human history of chaos and conflict, love and life doesn’t matter anymore.

Ray corners his fears, shifting the impulse to survive to a quest to reach Boston and the children’s mother. Glimpses of his son’s heroism and Ray’s failures as a father offer substance to a movie that could’ve made it on flash and special effects.

Cruise offers an unerringly strong performance of a man whose shortcomings are the very impulses that lead to his and his children’s survival. Child star Dakota Fanning weighs in with a spell-binding performance that left me concerned about the nightmares she’ll surely have later in life.

Go see “War of the Worlds.” You’ll be entertained, and at the very least, it’ll put those tedious, nagging details of your life in a whole new perspective.

Rated PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and disturbing images