War of the Worlds (2005)

Is War of the Worlds really going to be the biggest summer movie of the year? Is it going to take the world by storm? In the end I would say no, others would disagree. Based off of the H.G. wells novel, War of the Worlds is the next movie to be added into the Steven Spielberg collection of blockbusters. Tom Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier. His ex-wife brings their kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) to him for the weekend and what starts out as a turbulent clash between a father and his children turns into a race to escape a merciless alien invasion. War of the Worlds is a survival story of a man and his two children, trying to make it through some of the harshest adversities ever recorded by man.

 

Smarts

81%

When famous novels are created into movies a good percentage of the time they usually have good or great scripts. The writing in War of the Worlds isn’t perfect, but it’s not bad either. There are some lines that Tom Cruise and supporting cast like Tim Robbins deliver that sound so stupid that it makes one cringe and you can tell easily that they are out of place. Before I saw any previews or heard any news on War of the Worlds I never had any interest in reading the original novel. I still feel the same about the novel, but I am now interested in seeing the original film from 1953.

The biggest aspect of the film that people were worried about when a new War of the Worlds was announced was how they were going to make the alien tripods look, and the special effects in particular. The tripods are amazing from the first time they come on screen, blasting from the underground and frying people to death. Their presence is utterly terrifying and looks spectacular. CGI can be good or bad, depending how you use it. Steven Spielberg knows how to use it. We have seen what he can do in the ahead of its time Jurassic Park and in this case the CGI is both good and bad. The tripods look fantastic and so do some stunning sky visuals but the aliens look horrible. They aren’t the skinny and tall creatures that we see in most alien films.  Instead we are given a nasty, mutant E.T that skitters on crab-like legs.

Dakota Fanning has to be the biggest children’s star around these days. She has starred with Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Brittany Murphy, and now Tom Cruise. She is one of the reasons why I love this movie. She and Tom Cruise are so believable as a father and daughter that it is almost as scary as the tripods. Tom Cruise performs well as a divorced father who has a hard enough time trying to get his older son to listen to him. But when aliens start attacking its nearly impossible to keep his family in order. Before I saw the film I heard that Tim Robbins is especially good as a man that takes in Cruise and Fanning later on in the film. I found his performance to be lackluster and boring. They did need the character for the sake of suspense but they could have found someone better I think.

The sets in War of the Worlds are amazing. In one scene Tom Cruise comes out of a house after a night of attacks and finds a 747 airplane crashed and on fire on his front lawn. It just shows how much money Steven Spielberg has to go through to get or build a giant passenger aircraft and torch it just for a thirty second scene. When Spielberg wants a good setting he will get it and he has many of them in War of the Worlds. From destroyed houses to cities full of hectic people looking for a way to survive.

 

Popcorn

83%

War of the Worlds is your top notch summer action/sci-fi popcorn film. Once every two years or so there is a film that comes around during the summer time that everyone runs to see. This year, War of the Worlds is that film. It doesn’t disappoint on the factors of enjoyment and emotion. It has all the star power you could ask for, even Morgan Freeman as narrator.

The action and adventure in War of the Worlds will leave you breathless. You will be on the edge of your seat just waiting to see what will happen to this unfortunate family. Things blowing up, aliens transporting down to Earth via lightning, you name it. This movie is filled with everything you could imagine in an invasion/apocalyptic sci-fi film and some things you can't even imagine. It is just uncanny how almost every film that Spielberg makes is great. Few other directors knows how to deliver a story like War of the Worlds with the skill Spielberg exhibits. He knows exactly how to produce top notch action sequences even if the ones fighting aren’t from this planet. He showed us that in Close Encounters and E.T. After twenty three years Spielberg comes and brings us an alien film to end all alien films.

 

Final

War of the Worlds leaves you feeling depressed about our potential insignificance in the grand scheme of things. If these kind of events actually took place what would we as a supposedly 'dominant race' do? I wouldn't intend on taking children under the age of twelve to go and see this film due to scary and disturbing images. War of the Worlds is one of the year's biggest blockbusters. For me, it didn’t quite live up to the expectations, despite still being a very respectable final product. I was expecting a better story, better CGI and a better and more interesting ending. Your respect for Spielberg might grow after you see this.  I certainly would not blame you if that was the case.  For me, War of the Worlds only maintained the status quo, but my respect did grow for that little Dakota Fanning.