War Of The Worlds (Special Edition) > Reviews > They're Already Here - #3 of 2005

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Exciting, spectacular popcorn fun
Disadvantages:	Silly ending, sentimentall slop

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Divorced dockworker and father of two, Ray Ferrier, is on baby sitting duty. With his wife and her new partner off for a short break, it falls to Ray to look after his teenaged son Robbie, and his young sister Rachel. Ray dotes on his children, but there is friction in the relationship between him and son Robbie and things do not bode well for a peaceful weekend.

When a strange storm hits the city, Ray and his neighbours venture out into the garden to marvel at the dark, swirling skies and fierce winds that seem to defy the laws of physics. A series of lightning strikes hit the city, not far from Ray's home and, curious as to what is happening, he leaves Robbie to look after Rachel and ventures into the city to see what is going on.

He finds mayhem. An electromagnetic pulse has disabled just about everything in the city, and hordes of people are gathering in the streets to investigate the point of impact from the lightning strike. The ground rumbles, creaks and starts to split and before the terrified onlookers very eyes, something emerges from the ground. It would seem that mankind has been under surveillance. Watching and waiting for the right moment, an alien race has finally decided to reveal itself and the terrible destiny it has planned for the human race.

For Ray Ferrier, it is time to start running.

Three years after the acclaimed science fiction movie Minority Report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise once again found themselves united in one of the year's biggest popcorn movies. The trailers were circulating for months and as the hype built, it seemed that it was something fantastic that everyone was expecting. And, in my humble opinion, something fantastic was pretty much what they good.

Spielberg's 2005 reworking of the 1950s classic is a triumphant piece of twenty-first century cinema. Flawless, this film is not. Impressive, it most certainly is and I defy anyone not to watch this and find himself or herself just a little bit excited.

Spielberg's take on the story is certainly a dark one. The alien invaders have grim plans for the human race and whilst the 1950s film portrayed them in the same marauding, murdering fashion, the 2005 update cranks things up about fifty levels. Annihilation is the name of the game here and once the audience starts to see the invaders terrible plans unfold, there really is no respite. In what appears to be a bid for Roland Emmerich's crown as "Director Who Blows The Most Stuff Up", Spielberg crafted eye-popping special effects with the classic ingredients of a seventies disaster movie and then layered in the science fiction spectacle of Independence Day, to tremendous effect. It takes a little while to get going, but then once it does, there's just no stopping it.

When Spielberg is good, he's really good - and in War of the Worlds, he is frequently very good. Visually, the film is exceptional. Yes, big budget special effects are prevalent, but Spielberg's ability to be subtle is never lost and there is spectacular set piece after another. A horde of fleeing civilians runs screaming and shouting towards a railway line but is stunned and silenced when a runaway train hurtles past, every carriage on fire. A motorway flyover is ripped to shreds like a piece of cardboard before your terrified eyes and an abandoned town plays host to the enormous charred wreckage of a downed jumbo jet. An attack of this scale calls for a film on the same scale - and War of the Worlds fulfils.

More surprisingly, however, is that Spielberg makes everything seem so frightening. In Independence Day, Will Smith kept things very light and despite the fact that thousands of people were being slaughtered, it was really just an effects-laden romp. Did you ever really fear for your existence? I'm guessing the answer to that would be no, but if you watch War of the Worlds, then the answer might be very different. The alien tripods show no hesitation in mercilessly rounding up the humans and then slaughtering them like cattle. Lasers are used to disintegrate fleeing humans, leaving nothing but ash. Masses of people are gathered up in huge nets and then literally sucked dry of blood so that the nasty aliens can propagate the world in their own image. It's a truly terrifying spectacle - parents beware. I suspected that younger children might find this rather unsettling.

Did you like the Jaws era Spielberg style? At times, I thought War of the Worlds came closer to this than anything he's done for a long time. In one superb, extended sequence, the lead characters find themselves holed up underneath a disused barn. As they crouch in the stale darkness, an alien probe glides silently between them, seeking them out. And then when they think that they are quite safe… well, you'll have to watch the film to find out, won't you?

Tom Cruise is uncharacteristically placed in this film. He's not a cocky, successful womanising lawyer. He's not a playboy and neither is he guaranteed success. In fact, Ray Ferrier is a bit of a loser. Failed husband; failed career; failed father; shit home - he hasn't got much to shout about. His adventure is therefore that of the common man - and it makes a nice change. Love him or loathe him, he's convincing and charismatic enough to pull it off. Dakota Fanning (playing his daughter, Rachel) is more compelling and watching the world disintegrate through her bright, child's eyes is an engaging spectacle. Tim Robbins presence in the film is rather less logically placed and whilst he is very convincing, he soon becomes an obstacle. At the far end of the scale is Justin Chatwin - Ray's snivelling son Robbie, who wears thin rapidly and wouldn't have been missed for a minute.

The soundtrack is excellent too. Spectators beware - it is nothing to do with the much-loved Jeff Wayne masterpiece. However, it is extremely effective - imposing and dark when applicable and then quiet and sinister. Sound is an integral part of the movie - it is the sound of the invading tripods that people hear before they see their terrible silhouette.

But before we get too carried away with the spectacle, as much as Spielberg delivers the goods, you get the bad bits too. Spielberg's insistence on filling the piece with overblown family sentimentality is out of place. For once, I'd like to see an American film with a hero without "issues", be it estranged wives, drink or gambling problems or wayward kids. Several scenes in the film could easily have been cut - Ray's tempestuous relationship with his son Robbie adds nothing to the story at all.

Those of you looking for plausibility - scientific or otherwise - should also look elsewhere. In one ridiculous scene, a river barge is overturned, casting all the passengers into the river. As nasty alien tripods scoop them up, Ray and his family somehow manage to outswim both aliens and giant rudders. Hmm. We are also led to believe that a technologically advanced race of beings intent on annihilation decides to use lasers to individually hunt down and kill people one by one. I couldn't help thinking that gas or disease would have been much more effective. And why did they wait so long, until mankind was better equipped to defend itself than ever before? And as for the ending. Suffice it to say that I think someone got bored. As much as the film stays faithful to the original, I'd have liked to see things pan out a different way.

But I can forgive these things because War of the Worlds is essentially such an entertaining spectacle. Exciting and terrifying in equal measures and technically as accomplished as you'd expect, it remains one of my favourite films of the year.

Still recommended, highly.