War of the Worlds (Widescreen Edition)
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Actor: Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, Tom CruiseBrand: DreamWorks
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Reviews of War of the Worlds (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Excellent in some ways, magnificently BAd in others
Summary: 3 Stars
"War of the Worlds," the latest adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1898 novel (minus the introductory article "The" in the original title), is another in the increasinly tall pile of newer movies that are visually excellent but bereft of a corresponding emotional strength to give those visuals true meaning. Spielberg's latest generation-defining-epic-that-almost-was-but-then-wasn't seems to be a two-hour series of random, violent deaths punctuated by unconvincing asides where the director attempts to show us the dysfunctional nature of mankind's value systems, usually through the interactions of the main characters (an East-coast family separated by divorce) with each other and a small number of other characters of varying degrees of inconsequence. Spielberg's techniques will probably work for some people (the same sort who took "Independence Day, "Armageddon," and other such films at face value and never questioned those movies' inherent absurdity) but for people who are more cynical this new "War of the Worlds" movie is a relative letdown. The entire premise for the aliens' attack seems a bit questionable, the premise for their defeat also questionable, and many other questions an intelligent audience may have aren't answered but are instead answered with more explosions, deaths, and rather shameless attempts at manipulating the audience's emotions. Added to this, for some reason Spielberg finds it necessary to include awkward references to current politics and post "9/11" terrorist paranoia, which, far from making the audience think "wow! just like in real life!" instead will make a lot of people roll their eyes and look at their indiglo watch in the theatre to see what time it is and whether or not it might actually be a better idea to movie-hop and catch the 9:45 showing of that new Batman movie.
*spoiler warning*
Ray (Tom Cruise's character) is a New Jersey dockworker who has two children, a seventeen year old son (Justing Chatwick, in a sullen performance which is probably the best in the movie), and ten year old daughter (Dakota Fanning, doing what she does best in movies -- screaming in terror over and over, usually louder each time). He is divorced from his wife, and she is pregnant from her new boyfriend. She is visiting her parents (who live in Boston) for a weekend with her new beau, and is leaving the kids with Ray. Spielberg is effective here in confusing the audience in a good way -- people are tempted to dislike Cruise's ex-wife because she seems condescending, and her new boyfriend acts so 'rich-boy' self important (he has a beautiful new luxury SUV parked in front of Ray's blue-collar neighborhood) that the audience may wish that Ray would punch him out then and there. The audience is also tempted to dislike Ray's kids, who seem a bit spoiled and aloof toward their father. However, Cruise's character proves just as unlikable because he acts like a jerk toward his kids and seems kind of like an immature middle-aged guy who still acts like a child (he is playing with a dismantled car engine in his kitchen with the same enthusiasm that a little boy plays with a Tonka truck in the house). The audience is thus made aware of the dysfunctional nature of the family on screen, and it is obviously intended that the audience recognize some of their own families' petty squabbles vicariously. It is clear that Spielberg wants the audience to realise the skewed nature of our emotional priorities in the face of the entire world collapsing, which, naturally, is just what occurs.
Odd thunderstorms around the world (of which we are informed on the TV screens in Ray's home) and which later occur in the sky above Ray's home soon indicate that all is not well. A particularly deep crater in the middle of the neighborhood draws the interest of most of the inhabitants, and suddenly a gigantic, 100-foot tall alien craft emerges, supported by three slinky-like spider legs. The craft appears somewhat similar to the Imperial Walkers that characterized "The Empire Strikes Back" (in fact, the models for both movies were designed by the same man) and just as impractical. Some in the audience may wonder why no one in the movie ever tried to trip the machines somehow. The alien craft appear to have different methods for killing humans and different reasons for doing so. At their first appearance, the craft shoot humans randomly with laser beams that vaporize them. Okay, the audience thinks, the aliens just want to kill the humans.
Cruise survives going downtown to look at the crater where the initial machine materialized and rushes back home to collect his children, with the plan to leave New Jersey and race to Boston, with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his ex-wife. What purpose this would serve other than allowing them all to die together, I don't know. It seems that the alien craft (as destructive as the first one was, it's only one among many that attack this city and others all over the world) have been able to render all cars unusable with some kind of energy field, except one, which Ray miraculously able to use.
The movie then degenerates into various scenes of Ray's family avoiding death at every turn while literally hundreds of other thinking, sentient humans around them provide background gore. Extraneous characters include a mysterious woman and her daughter who apparently know Ray, and run into him by coincidence on a road crowded with faceless refugees. This, after Ray and company are predictably releived of their car by an insane crowd. Just as quickly as we are introduced to her, she disappears and we are led to believe she must have been killed by the latest alien "phaser attack."
Eventually, in what is meant to be a pivotal scene, Tim Robbins appears as an insane gun-toter who somehow selects Ray and his daughter out of a fleeing crowd of thousands to share room in his basement. Robbins' character is obsessed with resisting the occupier, though by what means is not made clear. In fact, this whole sequence, which lasts over 30 minutes, is rather confusing. At first we are led to believe Robbins' will join forces with Ray to fight the aliens, but then he degenerates into insanity, making a lot of uncomfortable and inappropriate (though never candid) references to the current political situation in Iraq, and the scene is ultimately disappointing. Oh yeah, and Tom Cruise kills him with a two-by-four.
It seems that Spielberg is confused or at least unclear in what he wants this movie to be. The aliens seem to serve no purpose other than to inform us that "yes, you humans are insignificant and all your fancy weapons and society and civilization are useless in the face of a power you cannot understand." At other points he seems to want the aliens to be there just so that Ray's character can learn his lesson and become a better father at the expense of the lives of millions of extras from the screen actors' guild. If Spielberg's theme is just that humanity (or at least Americans) need a wake up call, then I can buy that, but his execution is sloppy.
At first, the aliens seem to just want to kill humans, later it seems they want to eat us, later still, it seems they want to use us as fertilizer. It's confusing, and for audience members who know they're not inherently dumb, the fault of the confusion is just incoherent story telling. If you have to think about a movie afterward to have it make better sense in your mind, then that's a good movie. If you have to think about a movie later to have it make ANY sense, then it can't be a good movie. Robbins' character, before his bloody demise, informs us that the aliens planted their "tripod" attack craft millions of years ago in planning this attack, and that the alien drivers "came down in the lightning storm" to pilot the hidden craft. This leads to some odd questions. First, if the aliens were here millions of years ago, why didn't they just take over the planet then? This might make sense if the aliens need us somehow (like for food or fertilizer) but it makes less sense in the way the aliens vaporize people with no way to resist rather than eating them or turning them into fertilizer. Also, if they planted these craft several millions of years ago it might be interesting to see some of the craft emerge from under the oceans, which have changed position over many millions of years. It seems a bit convenient that the craft all appear in only the places that offer the best chance for blowing things up.
Finally, this movie lacks a satisfying high-point. It just ends abruptly, with Morgan Freeman narrating "oh yeah, they caught a virus, or something" which is just how the book ended, but the book ended in a satisfying way relative to the rest of the book, where as Spielberg's movie just falls flat on its face.
This is an okay movie, but certainly not worth a second viewing. I doubt if it will make huge money at the box office.
Description of War of the Worlds (Widescreen Edition)
special edition with HBO making of.Despite super effects, a huge budget, and the cinematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies (Jaws, Jurassic Park). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." --Doug Thomas
War of the Worlds at Amazon.com
 The Soundtrack |  The War of the Worlds (1953) |  War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season (TV series) |
 Classic Sci-Fi Movies and Their Remakes |  Aliens Invade on DVD |  The Prog-rock Opera (no kidding) |
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