Movie Review

War of the Worlds

The invasion is upon us as Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg have teamed up for another sci-fi extravaganza. This time they adapt from H.G. Wells rather than Philip K. Dick (what's with all these fantasy authors having initials in their names?), but War of the Worlds is many folds more famous than anything Dick has ever written. In fact, it is one of the most well known stories of all time, period - both a blessing and a curse for this film version.

The upside is that the material provides an excuse to have waves of no-strings-attached alien destruction; the production doesn't need to justify itself or what it's about, and that's refreshing. The downside is that the story is so familiar from 100+ years of retellings that so many people (including I) will already know everything that happens, including the ending. And since the original Wells tale is so legendary, Spielberg and company really had no choice other than to be very faithful to the main plot points.

Quite frankly, you should already know what happens: aliens invade Earth using giant death-ray machines. They destroy everything and anything. Humans run for their lives and try desperately to survive. Total chaos reigns across the globe. The hook is that we stick with Tom Cruise and his family, and therefore experience the whole horror-show from their point of view. Some may complain about such limited scope, but really, how else are you going to tell this story in a viable cinematic format? You can't show the perspective of everybody in the world, so you have to just pick some actors and roll with them.

One of the problems is that since we only really follow the one family unit, we don?t get too much hard information about the aliens. We'd like to know more about their background, their technology, and their entire motive for this global operation. But maybe that's the point: these beings are a mystery that humans can't even comprehend. They want to exterminate us, and we will never truly know why. It also seems that a lot of people have problems with the deus ex machina ending. I think it's appropriate: why shouldn't there be a wild card that comes into play? It's just as valid, story-wise, as a bunch of heroes saving the world with guts and glory. And don't forget the aforementioned faithfulness to the original text.

But what we really came for is the spectacle and War of the Worlds delivers stupendously. One scene in particular in which an alien tripod machine rises up out of a river and terrorizes a boat full of people had my jaw on the floor. What we have here is bigger than Jurassic Park, A.I., or anything Spielberg has ever done: this involves 300-foot metal beasts shooting lasers out of their heads and vaporizing crowds full of people. These things are much worse than dinosaurs, and the havoc they wreak isn't limited to a small island.

This movie blew me away on several fronts. Say what you will about script choices and plot holes; there's little denying that Spielberg is a visual and cinematic master. I know that it's cliche to say and that so many consider him the best that's it's accepted as a given by the pubic (due in no small part to his incredible box-office-drawing power), but some things are just true: Steven has so much to bring even to a relatively simplistic movie such as this one. The camerawork and overall look of the production is fantastic; this is as much of a psychedelic light show freak-out as Close Encounters, albeit on the dark side of the alien acid trip. There is vivid yet subtle use of color, and some bed-wettingly great single shots that take the atmosphere to a whole new level.

The film definitely has flaws - huge ones, even. I agree with many of the criticisms I've heard, and I can see why some people are coming away disappointed. But frankly, I disagree with them about this film being a failure. The good far exceeds the bad in this flick, to be sure. There's plenty of meat here for summer audiences to chew on, and the film-scholar types will collect food for thought as they would from any Spielberg picture. I really enjoyed this one, and even more so after a day or two. That's a hallmark of top-notch filmmaking. War of the Worlds is the best movie of the summer so far.

Scott's Grade: B

A	15.1%
B	59.2%
C	24.5%
D	1.2%
F	0.0%