Movie Review 2: War of the Worlds

By Anthony Pearson Jun 29, 2005, 13:13 GMT

War of the Worlds, the first big budget movie adaptation of H. G. Wells' superb novel in over 50 years. Directed by the man himself Steven Spielberg who is very familiar with the Extra Terrestrial kind and definatley the top choice to direct an adaptation of The War of the Worlds. Before i really kick into my review i must say, dont go in expecting a traced adaptation of the novel, but you will certainly feel the spirit and horror of the Wells' story.

War of the Worlds follows the life of Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) a dead beat dad dockworker who has his 2 offspring Robby (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) dumped onto him for the weekend by his pregnant ex wife Mary Anne played by Miranda Otto. The moment pre to the alien attack sets up the characters perfectly.

Both of Rays children show little respect for the dad, and the Ray doesn't really make an effort back, and when he does he tends to get distracted by an afternoon nap or something on that lines. He is basically more of a child than both Robby and Rachel.

But only around 10 minutes into the movie unusual happenings start to occur. Terrifyingly loud lightening storms strike Bayonne and disables practially every electrical device in the area. These lightening storms sound fantastic in the theater, extremely loud and ultra realistic. The storms end almost suddenly. After Ray goes out of the house to investigate leaving his daughter behind.

This then leads into what i thought was the most exciting, intense and scary scene of the movie. A hole is found in the ground, and noises are heard below. Suddenly the ground starts to crack, to create a circular shape in the ground over the intersection. The ground then quickly falls inwards. Curious people await on the edge of the hole in anticipation, and slowly a large mechanical machine starts to rise, and when i mean rise it keeps on rising, it is massive. Its like one of those scenes like the first scene in Star Wars where the imperial giant ship flies across the screen slowly but menacingly. The machine of course is one of the Aliens tripods, and i tell you they have hit the mark with this one, it scared the living daylights out me.

The tripod basically wiped out everything in its path, turning people into ash in an instance. Disturbing stuff indeed.

Ray goes home in a unstable state covered in the ash of all the dead people, and orders his family to leave the house. So then Ray, Robby and Rachel get out, get a working car and leave for Mary Annes house so he can basically dump the kids back on the mother. When they arrive at the house it is empty and from now on the character of Ray has to get it into his head that he needs to look after his children himself. Thich is something that he has never really done before properly. He must get his kids to Boston to reunite them with their mother who is staying at the grandfather and grandmothers house.

War of the Worlds is full of many terrific and instense scenes. I will talk about a few of which stood out in the movie.

The basement scene is a scary scene, the sounds are what had me off my seat the most. In this scene Ray, Rachel and Robby are in the basement of Mary Annes abandoned house during the early parts of the invasion. Outside you hear the loud sounds of the heat ray cutting through object, but most terrifyling the sound of a crashing Bowen 747 on the house and neigbourhood they are in. The expressions of pure fear on Rachel (Dakota Fannings) face are totally convincing. You want all these guys to be alright, you doint want them dead or harmed, you care for them.

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Another stand out scene was the whole ferry scene and pre ferry scene in which people try everything to get onto a ferry, because looming behind them are the show no mercy at all tripod fighting machines. No idea why people wanted to get on the ferry though because people are just as f***ed getting on it.  Who said tripods cant swim? Well not me, because thats what they do.

Im not going to mention every scene because i do not want to completly ruin the film for everyone, but i will mention the 15 minute odd scene in the cellar of a ruined house. The scene involves Tim Robbins mad delisional character of Oglivy who has obviously had a lot of bad things happen to him during this "EXTERMINATION" of life on Earth who invites Ray and Rachel down for refuge in his cellar. This whole scene mirrors the same ruined house section from the novel. Ogilvy's act of allowing them into his cellar was not just one of kindness, but one of his mad plans in which he could get a few people to survive underground (like the Aliens) and then strike at them when the time is right.  The cellar continuingly becomes probed by not just an Alien probing device (1953 Pal film homage) but a group of the Aliens themselves. The scene though ends the fate of Oglivy decided... Enough said.

In War of the Worlds American's are pushed into refugee status, something that has never happened in US history. Because of people’s losses and fears of these terrible Alien tripods they would do almost anything to survive. A scene in the movie which is one of my favourite is when Ray, Robby and Rachel’s drive through an angry mob of people who want their car so they can get away. This ends up a big brawls and even gun shots fired. This shows how much mankind has been degraded by this sudden invasion.

Spielberg turns the right switches yet again in this scene and a large majority of the movie, though i have to say the second half of the movie was the lesser half of the film compared to the spectacular intense first half.

There are also many of these moment scenes that have been forged into the story nicely. One in Athens in which a burnt out train passes infront of a bunch of refugees, and also one in which when Rachel looks into a river and see's dead bodies floating pass, this scene is even more key because its the first time the young girl actually sees the effect on life during the film.

Steven Spielberg has done a great thing, something that a big special effects movie rarely does. The special effects are just a backdrop, essential but not the primary item in the film (amazing anyway still). The primary object and the most powerful things were the relationships between the characters of Tom Cruise, Justin Chatwin and of course Dakota Fanning. This really is what keeps you hooked. Watching this dead beat dad try and get his family through this invasion and during this trying to find himself as a dad and gain the respect and love from his daughter and son in the process.

War of the Worlds has many good aspects about it, another was the performances from the actors. Two big nods for Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. My god, Cruise can still pull it off. This guy can be given a task and he will do it, and do it almost perfectly. His character Ray really is a "Jerk" and Tom Cruise brings him to life as a totally believable character.

Then theres Dakota Fanning. Sometimes she scares me, she is so brilliant. Like a grown up in an 11 year olds body. She gets scared a lot in this movie, but also has quite a smart suttle side to her in which some scenes she actually can intimidate her father. Dakota Fanning is a huge talent, and this is probably her greatest performance to date, and i tell you she has made quite a lot of films for her age.

Cruise and Fanning pull off oscar calibure performance, but im convinced though that they will be overlooked at the 2006 oscar ceremony because of it's usual ignorance to science fiction.

Im not forgetting Justin Chatwins character of Robby so dont worry. This guy pulls off a good perfomance as a slightly confused teenager who eventually goes his own way. A large amount of family humour comes through these 3 characters, and most of the time the reason we laugh is because whatever the father does, the children always one step ahead of him. Beware though, the moment Tom Cruise starts singing "Little Deuce Coupe" we know were in for even more trouble.

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Onto what i thought was bad, theres not much but the problem was fairly big, but i did not let this ruin the great experience which is War of the Worlds. My problems is the happy ending of which i will not reveal, but i can say, i and many other people found it very much out of place in such an intense, scary movie.

Also another scene towards the end that which again i wont reveal, but this one was also out of place. It invloved Tom Cruise, a grenade and a tripod. Use your imagination to see what i am getting at. Think of the battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke takes down one of the big walkers by himself. This scene was not bad, but like i said just it was out of place.

So now what, lets talks about the visual effects of the movie. They are amazing, they are at such a class level that all the special effects scenes are totally believable. The effects blend into the story so well you forgot that what you are watching isn't really there.

Battle scenes, though they are not directly in your face they look amazing. Building getting destroyed and in particular a scene in which a church steaple falls into a pit in the ground all came out well on screen.

The Aliens fighting tripod machines are a full CGI creation. These 150 feet plus metal monsters command complete fear similar to what the great white Shark from 'Jaws' created. That same sort of menace that when you here their horrible calls or see their light on their hood slowly rise over a horizon you start shaking. And think some scenes involve up to 6 of these machines. I had the same fear viewing these tripods on the screen as to when i read about them in the book, they have been captured perfectly.

I have to raise my hands also to Janusz Kaminski the cinematographer of War of the Worlds. There are so many personal but yet fast shots in the movie. One example is when Ray is driving his family through a motorway crowded with disabled cars from the initial EMP shock lighening strikes. The camera pop in and out of the car, moves around in the car fastly paced frequently changing capturing the different emotions on the faces of our 3 main character. Rachel is in the back screaming and crying, Robby is shocked and curious of what is going on while trying to comfort his sister, and Ray is busy trying to do several things at once while driving the car. Throughout the film the cinematography is consistantly pulling off these great personal shots.

John Williams yet again puts a fitting eerie score to the film, but is not as noticable as in other Williams scores such as Star Wars, Jurrasic Park, Harry Potter or A.i.

Spielberg and Koepp are the bees knees, Koepp created a fantastic screenplay, and Spielberg visually adapted with style. A big round of appluase to the men. I knew Spielberg could do action and horror, but War of the Worlds is deep stuff. At it's core it is disturbing, intense and emotionally charge. The movie contains an uncountable amount of memorable moments which i think will go down as some of the greatest moments in any Spielberg film or even modern film period.

War of the Worlds is possibly one of the most original and mind provoking science fiction movies in a very long time. Wells' purist may object to this adaptation, but what i can say other than, this is the essanse of Wells' novel. Movie goers will dig War of the Worlds in its entirety, though i think a lot of people may get distracted by the out of place ending. The movie carries some of most amazing, intense scenes ever seen to date. War of the Worlds is not your average souless dumb blockbuster, it is so much more.

This adaptation like the 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast, the 1953 George Pal film, and the 1978 musical will be remembered for many, many more years to come.