War of the Worlds

If Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T were the dream of what the meeting of humanity and beings from another planet could be, then War of the Worlds is the nightmare. Using the classic H.G Wells novel as a guide, Steven Spielberg updates the alien invasion classic with a haunting modern twist. 

Ray Ferrier (played by Tom Cruise) spends his days working on the docks in Brooklyn and working on his cars at home. He is being left in charge of his two kids, Rachel (played by Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (played by Justin Chatwin) while their mother and stepfather go to Boston for the weekend. The weekend does not start off well as they kids are less than thrilled to have to spend the weekend with their father, who they are at least somewhat estranged from. The visit takes a surprising turn when an unusual storm blows in with lighting strikes hitting the same spots repeatedly. The same lightning wipes out all electronics and vehicles. Ray investigates the lightning strikes with a few of his neighbors when the ground underneath them begins to shake and move until a large, alien machine rises from deep within the ground, standing high above the buildings on three long legs. The machine, dubbed a tripod, starts laying waste to the crowd blasting people and buildings with high powered beams that literally turn them to ash. Ray is able to dodge the repeated beams and make it back to his house. He gathers his kids and steals the one car he knows will still work since he told the mechanic working on it to switch out the solenoid, which got fried by the EMP that was in the lighting set off by the aliens. Ray, Robbie and Rachel then hit the road, trying to avoid crowds and find safety as the world is taken over and being systematically destroyed by the strange alien invaders. 

Steven Spielberg, along with screenwriters Josh Friedman and David Koepp, does a great job bringing the horrors of H.G Wells' classic novel to the big screen while also updating it to the modern age. By keeping the story focused primarily on three characters for the majority of the film, it really adds to the tension of the film as the viewer is more or less right there alongside them for the entire film. The special effects for the film are top notch and frighteningly convincing. The design of the Tripod ships are straight out of the original novel and feel genuinely menacing, especially with this horrifying blaring horn noise that erupts from them each time they show up. For the majority of the film, they had me on the edge of my seat as Ray, Robbie and Rachel go from one intense moment to another Spielberg does come up with some genuine nightmare scenarios from the initial fleeing from the Tripods as the the landscape behind them is completely destroyed to a disastrous attempt to escape by ferry to the aftermath of the initial attacks. For a film about an alien invasion, the film feels grounded in reality as the events that unfold that made the fear and terror the characters were feeling palpable to me and therefore more effective as the film went on and their situation got more and more dire. That is, right up until the very ending when there is a revelation of a particular character that had me calling bullshit as I watched Spielberg give in to his need for a completely happy ending. If you've seen the film, you know what I'm talking about. Aside from that last minute moment, the film is a superior Sci-Fi Thriller. 

The acting in the film is solid throughout. Tom Cruise does a good job as Ray, a father who is doing his best to try and keep it together for his kids and keep them safe, but at the same time is scared out of his mind. Cruise does a good job portraying that and felt very much like how a parent would be in such a dire situation. Dakota Fanning likewise was really good as Rachel, even though she basically just had to act terrified for much of the film, she was at least convincingly terrified. Justin Chatwin does the best he can with what is probably the most underwritten role in the movie. For about the first half, Robbie is stepping up and helping his dad with Rachel and keeping her calm but then about the halfway point, his character is all ready to abandon his father and sister to run off with the troops and fight the aliens. It's such a sudden character shift and the movie never quite satisfactorily explains the sudden and decidedly selfish change in character, especially since he's just a teenager and it's clear his dad is relying on him to help with Rachel. Tim Robbins turns up in the second half of the film and has a good turn as a shell-shocked and mentally unstable farmer the Ferriers take shelter with at one point who slowly goes from savior to liability that Ray has to figure out how to deal with.    

Still, despite it's flaws, there is a lot to like about War of the Worlds. It maintains a level of intensity that is alone impressive as it moves from one crisis to another at a brisk pace, with the film clocking in at just under two hours. It is a film I enjoyed when I saw it in the theater back in 2005 and still enjoy today, despite the nitpicks mentioned above. I feel it's merits outweigh it's flaws.