War of the Worlds (DVD, 2005, Widescreen)

I'm not going to ever try to pretend there is a version of War of the Worlds that can equal the classic George Pal version. That movie is peerless! Yet the Spielberg movie is an excellent "go with" item for any fans of the H.G. Wells story itself. I personally love the novel and find great pleasure collecting anything to do with the story, so for me, this movie is a must have.

The movie is updated from Victorian England to present day America and many liberties are taken with the original story. But the cinematography is stellar and the sweeping magnitude of the tripod war machines is nothing short of breathtaking on the screen. While not keeping true to the book, the Martians themselves are pretty neat, certainly as viable as the Pal version. Visually, the movie is like being in an eye candy store! It literally explodes with all sorts of CGI effects. Some cinema snobs disdain CGI, but if it works in the movie, I say knock yourself with it!

Tom Cruise stars and, IMHO, is a depressingly over rated actor. Yet he pulls off the role of the main character with a more natural sympathy than other characters he's done. I'm certain much of this because Spielberg knew exactly what he wanted and tried to concentrate more on the character than on Cruise's superstar status. (You know the story: "Oooooh, Ahhhhh, we got a superstar to sign a contract...we must tailor make a movie all around him!)

Clearly though, the outstanding universal appeal of this picture is how Spielberg has a way with child actors. The kids in this movie are staggeringly natural and do not in the least look like kids trying to "act" or be cute for the camera. Their context reflects more the kids in Jaws who were thrust into a very dire situation rather than the cuter lighthearted situations in E.T. The movie is worth seeing alone if students of cinema wish to study how to get the most out of a child's acting on screen.

I give this picture an excellent rating NOT because I feel it's the apex of the greatest film making ever done, but rather in the context of War of the Worlds, which I believe is the only reason one would be reading this in the first place. If one likes the story enough to want to buy movies created from the source, it is only second to the Pal version and an essential. It can be enjoyed as a fun Friday evening popcorn movie, or actually as a study of how the infatuating writings of H.G. Wells have come to the big screen.

This movie was tedious. I was wholly disappointed in this work, especially considering the cast (Tom Cruise, Tim Robins) and director (Steven Spielberg). If you like the movie Twister, you will love this. It has some very good (and expensive) special effects, but I found myself rooting for the aliens throughout the movie. This could have been a real look at what a father would do to save his children, or what people would do to save their planet, or human reaction to the falling of everything they know; instead we get everyone whining throughout the entirety of the movie and boredom waiting for something of true interest to happen. There is one spark of what may actually happen when as Tom and his family get to a little town and lose the van (the only working van on the planet apparently except for the tanks?) the crowd goes crazy and you actually start to see how humans would probably react. Through it all you will sit idly by waiting for some ending (which is horrible and very sappy) and again be disappointed because all you have to do is wait long enough and the aliens die and everyone is reunited and happy. Some insight into the human condition could have saved this movie and delving into a true action adventure movie would have numbed te mind but been entertaining, however, we got a movie with a story line and acting similar to that form a high school AV club production with the most advanced special effects possible.

UPDATE: For further proof this movie was no good and the acting was terrible, Tom Cruise was nominated for a Razzie!

In short this movie is tedious and a horrible waste of time and money. Save yourself some money, get the original movie or if you can the original audio and avoid this at all costs.

This is a most stress-filled and exciting film, with good reason. Poorly equipped for fatherhood (no Suri jokes), Papa Tom finds himself responsible for the safety of his two children who are visiting for the weekend when the earth is attacked by very unfriendly aliens with an agenda. Junior has rebellion issues and Blondie's precocious and spoiled. All this is very worrisome and stressful for Papa Tom.

The film progresses from there to nonstop run for safety activity that is thrilling and well done. Spielberg creates an ominous sense of impending danger and confusion in the first act. It feels frighteningly real as everyone has to suddenly react to the peril that crops up so quickly.

The movie takes you on the family's wild ride for safety as Papa Tom's efforts to help them survive moment to moment close in around them. Cruise does a good job of conveying a barely controlled sense of panic, as you would under these circumstances. Papa Tom not only has to contend with trying to stay out of the paths of roving, homocidal tripods (who always look as if they are about to take a picture), but has to deal with other people who act nasty and generally lose it. These create more worries.

There were a few nit-picky things that grated and I mention them now:
(1) Even though Papa Tom found the only operable car in the area it still would have needed to be a hovercraft to travel more than a quarter of a mile to get around all the broken down cars littering the road, much less make it all the way up to the rural Hudson Valley area;
(2) They outran the tripods on the hill which were pretty darn close considering the short human legs to long tripod strides ratio;
(3) The kid's brattiness always seemed to emerge at the worst moments, as when faux-goth-punk son decides the middle of a battlefield is a dandy place for a family argument (what was he going to fight the tripods with anyway, his cunning?); or the little blond albatross gets all brave, picky and mouthy when it comes to going to the bathroom outdoors not long after being completely psychotic with terror (did she ever get to pee? I know, I shouldn't obsess on such things).

All in all and in spite of the above objections, I found it a satisfying movie. Cruise kept his couch jumping to a minimum and the action was trademark Spielberg in the good way (though he will probably never surpass "Schindler's List" and that's as it should be). The film keeps you on the edge of your seat with the right amount of breathing space moments.

For extra amusement, watch it with others in a darkened room, sneak out and quietly set a tripod with a video camera nearby. Watch the fun as your guests discover it hovering ominously behind them, then turn on the flash. They may not speak to you for awhile, but it's worth it.

As a fan of the original 1898 HG Wells novel, and the original 1953 movie, as well as the Mercury Theatre radio broadcast narrated by Orson Welles, I was disappointed after seeing this movie in the theatre. Tom Cruise was very good in his role, as was Tim Robbins, and the special effects were excellent, but the movie as a whole just didn't seem to mesh well. The original book and movie encompassed the whole world fighting the Martians with all of humanity's very survival at stake. This Spielberg offering concentrates on Cruise and his children dealing with relationship issues and their apparent salvation if they can journey to his ex-wife in an apparently untouched major city.

Dakota Fanning screams a lot, the ending is anti-climatic, and the new story fails when compared to the original. The dvd release also has few noteworthy extras.

If you want to watch good science fiction purchase the original 1953 War of the Worlds which was re-released in a Special Collector's Edition. It has great extras including additional commentaries, specials on Wells, and even the original War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast.

Keep Watching the Skies!

A Steven Spielberg film, rated PG-13 and running time is 1 hour 57 minutes. This science fiction adventure movie is also full of horror as Earth is invaded by aliens and taken totally by surprise. An army of Tripods is destroying everything in their path. Tom Cruise plays the part of an American Father fleeing with his children played by Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins. Unbelievable action packed movie, worth watching more than once! Special Features include Designing the Enemy and Tripods & Aliens.