War of the Worlds
Director: Steven
Spielberg
Year: 2005
Rating: 7.5
I hadn't even realized that this was directed
by Steven Spielberg until the end credits. A much darker interpretation of
aliens after E.T. and Close Encounters. I came for H.G. Wells. It is based
on the H. G. Wells novel of 1898 and actually sticks closer to it than the
1953 version. It adds family of course which the book really doesn't. In
the book, it is one man trying to survive the Martians and crossing the English
countryside and into London. It had a vivid sense of hopelessness and despair
that neither film captures, but they all end the same way with bacteria being
the heroes. The 1953 version from George Pal had decent special effects for
its time, the destruction of Los Angeles was well done and the scene of the
two protagonists hiding as the alien searched with its tentacles was very
creepy. This version though does it better in every respect.
The star of that film, Gene Barry, has an
all too brief cameo in this one at the very end as the grandfather of the
two children. This film clearly has a budget hundreds of times the first
version and much more spectacle - but it keeps the story focused on a few
individuals trying to make their way to Boston as chaos and death are everywhere
around them. Other than in passing, there is no bigger picture shown - no
government and military officials strategizing or seeing what is happening
elsewhere. It makes for a strong story. Admittedly, I didn't like any of
the three characters all that much but still wanted to see them make it.
In the end of course, it is about family and the ties that bind us together.
It just takes an invasion from Mars for them to realize how much they love
each other.
Tom Cruise stars as everyman Ray who works
at the docks picking up giant containers with a crane and gently setting
them down. Knowing Cruise, that was probably him actually doing it. It is
dad's weekend to get the two children - Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and her older
brother Robbie (Justin Chatwin) - and it becomes clear that Ray is a bit
of an asshole and his kids don't particularly want to be with him. He doesn't
even know that Rachel is allergic to peanut butter. And then the aliens rise
from beneath the ground in these huge machines on tripods - apparently buried
thousands of years previously - with ray guns and force fields. They kill
everyone in the way and as we discover later find people rather nutritious.
Yummy. They were in a sense over that thousand years, growing the harvest.
Like everyone alive, they go on the run - staying just ahead of the machines
that are all over the world. I immediately took a dislike to the children
- Robbie being a snotty prick and Rachel becoming a scream queen. Though
Fanning is great at simply looking terrified much of the time.
Spielberg creates some great scenes of masses
of refugees walking, going crazy, a ferry boat being capsized, the military
fighting back - but the one scene that stands out is similar to the book
and to the first film. Ray and his daughter along with another man played
by Tim Robbins are hiding in the basement of a destroyed house when a giant
tentacle with a headlight comes looking for people and winds around the room
as the three of them keep moving to stay out of sight. Just when you think
that is over, the spindly Martians themselves show up looking for souvenirs
or something. The tension can be cut with a knife - and then they look outside
and see what the machines are doing with captured humans. It is a nightmare
of red. It is an incredible scene. It is Spielberg, so you know every artistic
and technical aspect is professional and well done. With Morgan Freeman giving
the narration at the beginning and end, it is like the seal of approval.
