I loved the movie, very close to the original
text indeed.
I could have done without the whole errant father nonsense, but thought the rest of the film was absolute classic Speilberg fare.
I too was confused as to why they changed the original version of the story and Spoiler:
had the machines buried underground long before the aliens turned up to drive them but imagine it was made that way Spoiler:
as an excuse to show a block get demolished by an emerging tripod. Also, Spoiler:
the TV crew bit was unnesessary, knowing that the aliens rode lightning bolts into the earth didn't add anything, and may have actually detracted from the sense of dark mystery that should exist about an alien invader that's planned man's destruction for millenia - it kind of cheapened it
Anyway, I reccommend you read the
text of the story, at some point - it's really incredible to think that such a contemporary idea was conceived over 100 years ago.