DVD Review: H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (The Asylum's)

By Anthony Pearson Jun 9, 2005, 23:38 GMT

I am a massive fan of 'The War of the Worlds', so before I continue I will promise to try and keep this review as unbiased as a fan can possibly be.

'The War of the Worlds' is a classic sci-fi novel from the proclaimed author H. G. Wells'. It is the original invasion story in which Martians invade the planet and push human civilisation into refugee status. They rain destruction upon the planet. This review is of the straight to DVD movie adaptation of the novel, from film production company The Asylum. Director David Latt has a strong cast, which includes the likes of C. Thomas Howell, Jake Busey, and Peter Greene.

Before I return to the main part of the review, I must say that I enjoyed this immensely.

C. Thomas Howell (The Hitcher, Hidalgo) stars as family man and astronomer, George Herbert. He and his family were to take a trip to Washington DC, until George becomes distracted by a bright falling star in the daylight sky, and lets his family go on to DC without him.

While driving his car to investigate the occurrence, it suddenly stops, along with every other electrical appliance (those bloody EMP’s). This is followed by a terrible, thunderous crash, of an unidentified object falling. Upon approaching the fallen, mysterious object, out comes a terrifying six-legged walker that practically wipes out everything around it with its horrific blue heat ray.

George runs home, collects some supplies and then takes to the road by foot on a one-man mission to get to his loved ones in DC. His journey is very similar to that of the novel; he meets many different characters on the way, characters that resemble the likes of The Artilleryman and The Curate.

More and more of these objects, large cylinders, fall upon American soil. The fighting machines within them rain death and destruction on the mass population, taking out towns, cities, and villages in the process.

The Asylum's take on 'The War of the Worlds' is not an entirely faithful adaptation of the H. G. Wells' novel, for one it's not based during the turn of the 20th century, it's not based in England but America, and there are some major plot changes too. The movie has kept many aspects of the original novel, in some form or another, and combines it into their own story, still maintains the spirit of the original source material.

The cast, what can I say ? Each performance was very unique from each other but the big power driver of the movie was C. Thomas Howell, he portrayed his character with sheer emotion and love. His journey leads him to many troubles, and many new friends (sadly, his friends never last very long). At points he hits almost the brink of insanity, but the one thing that is stopping him is the fact that he has promised to meet his family.

Other notable performances come from the likes of Australian Rhett Giles (Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter's Cove) who plays a priest, Pastor Victor, who's role is very similar to The Curate from the book. His inner quest is to find the reason why God had put him on this planet. Preaching to his new friend George about religion, he questions and nearly loses his faith until he succumbs to a quick, horrible and painful death at the hands of a Martian.

 <!--page-->

Andrew Lauer (Legion of the Dead) stars as an Artilleryman type character called Lt. Kerry Williams, plays a very likeable character who sticks up for his mate George whatever the circumstances, but like Victor comes to a sudden death, but this time at the hands of a human.

That human being Jake Busey (Identity, Starship Troopers) playing a deranged Captain who brings the law into his own hands during the later stages of the invasion. His role is totally believable and depicts well what harm power can do to a person.

The rest of the performances are fairly average, but that is mainly because they don’t get the chance to really express themselves in the movie. Peter Greene (The Mask) stars as George's brother, but is only in the film for one scene in which he is found by George and basically dies in his hands. This scene in particular is somewhat one of the overdone scenes of the film; it's way too long. While watching this dying man, all I was thinking was hurry up and die so we can get on with the story and the action.

There are many nice looking and well directed scenes including the ruined house scene, which in the book, was one of the most memorable. This scene features George and Victor trapped in a house, in which one of the Martians' nests is on. They are trapped for days, and this is where George thinks of a farfetched but effective plan to wipe out the Alien villains.

Other good scenes from the movie were the city scenes, in which a city (sorry I cant name the city) gets practically wiped out by a bunch of Martian walkers, the special effects were pretty amazing, especially as the budget to the movie was not on the scale nowhere near to the likes of Spielberg's movie.

Ok, I have mentioned a lot of the good stuff, here's the bad stuff but don’t worry there is not that much. The final scene of the movie is over too quick and very anti-climatic, basically George arrives at DC finds his family, hugs them, that's it. A narration in this scene would of made it 10 times better. The pacing of the movie is questionable, many scenes are over far too quickly, and it leaves oh so many unanswered questions.

The score is not that memorable but is adequate. Some of the emotional music works well, especially in a scene where people from the Army, tired and injured, severely walk around a scrapped area full of refugees. For me that was the top part of the movie, that scene brought out perfectly one of the major meaning of the book, that mankind of which was all so powerful has been forced into second place and made to kneel in front of the conquering Martians.

David Latt, the director, has created what I can say is one of the best straight to DVD movies I have ever watched. This could have easily been released in a cinema, it does not seem like a DVD only movie.

It has the basic ingredients of a film that makes you think after you finish watching it, it's emotional, it's action packed, and it has some nudity, some gore, and it has character development scenes, it has romance, it has horror, even comedy, but it also has a soul.

I would recommend H. G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds' to any fan of The War of the Worlds novel, and also to people who just like to watch a good solid movie. Go buy this film on June 28th, This is one hell of a fun movie and I hope it goes onto to success which it duly deserves.

'H.G. Wells War of the Worlds' is available for pre-order via Amazon in the US and as of yet no UK release date has been given.