War of the Worlds Movie Review:


So it’s the end of the world, again. A concept we have been seeing in movies throughout history. But this time legendary director Steven Spielberg examines one of the most classic of sci-fi stories that comes from the heart of science fiction itself.

Back in 1898, master sci-fi storyteller HG Wells created a story that shocked Victorian civilization. Wells chronicled man’s last stand against an otherworldly menace from Mars. The book generated a following and has had one ever since.

In 1938, Orson Welles performed a dramatization of the novel which once again shocked a nation and became legendary. The radio program was so effective that it caused mass panic and hysteria. People actually believed that Martians were invading.

Now in 2005, Steven Spielberg tries to recreate the fascination with the classic story and making it more contemporary except maintaining the same impact the original story had on an unsuspecting audience way back when.

In the new adaptation, Tom Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, a divorced blue-collar docks worker from New Jersey, who has his two kids for the weekend. Ray has fractured relationships with his teenage son, Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and 10-year old daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning). Ray isn’t very good at being a father but he keeps trying.

Ray’s ability to be a father is put to the ultimate test when a major electrical storm rages across his hometown. Ray seems to be excited by the radical weather but his daughter Rachel is scared stiff.

After a calm in the storm, Ray locks his kids at home and journeys into town where some of the lightning struck. Cracks in the pavements start to appear and the ground gives way as a mechanical three-legged machine arises. The only thing on Ray’s mind is that he has to get home and protect his children. Can Ray save his children from the greatest threat man has ever known? Where does the family flee to during such an over-whelming crisis?

Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds brings the classic story back into our minds by making it seem like it’s about us. Very similar to the way he was able to bring dinosaurs into our time. There are many throwbacks to Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park”. The chills, the excitement and fractured relationships are all here.

The film at times feels like an amalgamation of “Jurassic Park” and “Saving Private Ryan”. The destruction and battles felt very similar.

Even after recent breakdowns and romance with the media, Tom Cruise proves that this film lives up to the hype and then some. I just wish Cruise kept his mouth shut and that who he was dating wasn’t the focus of the media blitz.

As for Cruise’s performance in the film, he does a wonderful job as a fractured father and being scared to his wits end. His desperation and struggle is evident if you can get the word “TomKat” out of your head long enough to enjoy him.

Dakota Fanning is brilliant in no matter what she tackles which is such an amazing accomplishment for someone so young. She is brilliant here as well. Her screaming did send shivers down my spine.

One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about Spielberg’s direction of this picture is that it seemed so claustrophobic and that feeling made the film feel even more like you were there. The effect was probably done for budget and time constrains for getting the picture done on time but it actually helps the film’s impact.

My only small complaint with the film was that the film itself is like a roller-coaster. All the build up, the raw excitement and then a sudden finish that make roller-coasters what they are. I wish the ending and eventual conclusion would have been drawn out some and showed the humans slowly figuring out how to defeat them. And what was that whole “look at the birds” scene about?

The effects, the tension, the utter desperation throughout the film is utter majesty. Who can’t relate to this man’s struggle?

“War of the Worlds” firmly returns Spielberg back to the master of the blockbuster and even reminds us a lot of the great films he has made in the past. This film is probably his best since “Saving Private Ryan”.

So Says the Soothsayer.



Dean Kish

Spielberg mixes two of his vintage genres, E.T./Close Encounters aliens and Jaws/Jurassic Park suspense, for a thoroughly terrifying action movie. As always, he effortlessly centres on the human drama amid the astounding imagery. So it's a pity the adaptation of HG Wells' classic novel becomes so contrived.

Ray (Cruise) is a working class New Jersey single dad whose ex (Otto) has just dropped off their two kids for the weekend: 10-year-old Rachel (Fanning) and sullen teen Robbie (Chatwin). Ray is, quite clearly, a terrible father, but he's about to test his mettle with the earth-rending invasion of an alien force that seems intent on wiping humanity off the face of the planet. Forget the world, can Ray save his children?

Spielberg's visual sensibilities are so finely tuned that he's able to keep us completely focussed on the characters while their world is being torn to shreds around them. Several sequences are astonishingly inventive, and the mind-bending effects almost always remain in the background while something meaningful happens between people who are trying to survive, often using the worst methods. And it's so riveting that we can even forgive glitches like a functional camcorder after all electrical objects have been rendered useless, a convenient news van, car-sized paths through the rubble. All of this and more signals the arrival of the Michael Bay mentality, hurling characters into random acts of selflessness, usually involving big guns and explosions.

In other words, it feels like two movies. Cruise is excellent in the first half, because he excels at playing jerks (see Collateral, Magnolia, Rain Man), but becomes grating as a leading man. And this script visibly bends to force him into hero mode. Fanning, meanwhile, delivers a solid performance that continually catches us off guard. And Chatwin nicely holds his own. Nobody else gets much of a chance (Robbins as a goofy-creepy gun nut; Freeman providing superb bookend voice-overs). Despite the script's appalling lapses, Spielberg masterfully crafts a film that's absolutely gripping. We can barely breathe for much of it. And when you're hyperventilating, it's kind of difficult to notice cliches creeping in.

Rich Cline

Having to look after daughter Rachel (Fanning) and son Robbie (Chatwin) for the weekend, Ray Ferrier (Cruise) sees it as another visit he simply had to get through. But as storm clouds gather overhead and reports of lightening strikes causing electrical blackouts around the world, Ray witnesses something that he simply cannot comprehend. Tripod ships have emerged from underneath the city streets and set about destroying everything in their path.

The world’s biggest star and director combine again to bring you the ultimate popcorn movie and this time it is war.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise are currently the most successful filmmakers on the planet, so when it comes to re-imagining a classic science fiction story, you can’t think of a better combination. The H.G. Wells story of alien invasion has hit the silver screen before in 1953 but this is a brand new and original approach to the classic tale. What Spielberg, Cruise and their creative team have done is kept the core of the story, the alien invasion, but shown it from a completely new perspective.

Instead of showing the story through the eyes of a military hero, journalist, scientist or President, we know witness the invasion from the point of view of an ordinary family. In the place of the usual take the fight to them hero approach that you might be expecting, we have a story of survival of a man and his children as all hell breaks loose around him. Instead of him picking up a weapon and taking on the aliens, we see them fleeing for their lives as the tripod ships destroy everything in their path, with sympathy or remorse.

Again Spielberg takes you into the heart of the action, using the camera more as a witness or fellow observer than something that simply captures the moment. There are not many distance or wide-angle shots here instead we see everything from the same level as our survivors. This brings a real sense of desperation and dread to the picture, as the world goes to hell all around Ray and this family you become engulfed in a crescendo of sound and visual devastation that totally overwhelms you at times.

The visuals are stunning. The magicians at ILM have brought their A-Game to the movie to produce some simply awe-inspiring shots that will have your jaw touching the floor. The alien tripods are extremely realistic, with their metallic structure, flailing arms and sheer size drawing directly from the classic descriptions from H.G. Wells’ novel. The devastation they cause is unbelievable and while it isn’t on the same scale as ‘Independence Day’, the film shows that this is a world war were every human is a target as the tripods march through the countryside and villages of New Jersey. The only real failing, and this is more of a nostalgic one, is that the laser beams that the ships fire don’t make that classic sound that made the 1953 version so memorable.

The decision to show the conflict through the eyes of three people changes the prospective of the film completely. It would have been so easy to do another military hero saves the day scenario and all of the grandeur and posturing that that affords but Spielberg and his creative team have gone in a new, refreshing direction. To make this work however, you have to have a strong trio of actors to bring these characters to life. Dakota Fanning is the finest child actress working in film today and her character Rachel proves this point again. As soon as the situation becomes apparent she portrays sheer terror and panic better than anyone else on the screen. She really pulls you into the situation, never failing in her believability or compromising her character’s sense of genuine fear making you experience what she is going through all the more real, even for a science fiction story. Tom Cruise is Hollywood’s most powerful actor for a reason, he never provides a bad performance and his role of Ray Ferrier is no different. This is an ordinary man with his own problems and a less than close relationship with his kids but the situation changes him completely. This isn’t your typical change ‘an ordinary man into a hero’ but someone who will do anything to keep his children save. He acts on instinct throughout doing whatever it takes to keep Rachel and Robbie alive. This is a good role for Cruise, making a change from his usual larger than life leading character because he has flaws and experiences genuine fear for the safety of his children. While he does have the tendency to overact in some scenes, this is another standout performance from an actor who really does know how to pick his roles. The only real let down on the acting front is Justin Chatwin as Robbie. This is no real fault of the actor but that of the script. You can understand that the character has issues with his father but you would think that he would forget about his petty grievances as soon as he saw that alien’s were invading. The crabby, sulky teenager doesn’t really work when people are been disintegrated all around you, making you disinterested in the character and his fate. The rest of the roles in the most are very small with only Tim Robbins gets much of a look in as a crazed survivalist who wants to take the fight to the aliens.

‘War of the Worlds’ brings Spielberg’s alien trilogy full circle. After the curiosity of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and the love of ‘E.T. The Extra Terrestrial’, this movie shows us the thing that we all fear, invasion. Successfully updating a classic, timeless story, this version of the H.G. Wells novel is a Spielberg thrill ride with a much darker tone but it is much the better for it. Reverting throughout and only let down by a slightly too Hollywood ending, ‘War of the Worlds’ is a fine example of how science fiction can be intelligent and extremely well made.

Jamie Kelwick

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