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 War of the Worlds


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The plot in a nutshell
The famous story of alien invasion is retold by Stephen Spielberg with a little help from Tom Cruise. Aliens attack, and we're powerless to stop them - but nature always comes through for us in a pinch, even though we treat her like such crap most of the time.

Relatively Spoiler Free Thoughts
The novel The War of the Worlds, written by H.G. Wells in 1898 (first serialized in the New Yorker, then as a novel), is one of the most influential science fiction works of all time. Written during a period when we were fascinated by Mars and the possibility of life on the red planet, it exposed our fears of the unknown and of ourselves.

This is one of those movies I don't consider a 'remake'. Since the original material is not a film but a book, then every film that comes out based on it is simply someone's interpretation of the novel, not of the previous film. However, that's a distinction many people have trouble seeing.

Orson Welles took the novel and turned it into an event unlike anything seen before or seen since, when he broadcast it on his radio show in 1938, on the night before Halloween. Although they were told at various times during the show that it was only a fictional drama, people still panicked, particularly those in New York and New Jersey, near Grover Mills, the site of the supposed invasion.

And now Spielberg has done his version - and nobody will be panicking. The film was a big box office summer blockbuster, which carries with it some assumptions of fluff and flash. Those assumptions are not misguided.

The film follows the basic story fairly well, with the occasional new angle thrown in by Spielberg. I have to admit that I found it deeply annoying that not once but twice the kids ask their father if it's terrorists attacking, although I suppose that's to be expected.

Cruise handles action films well, but he's not a great actor. The film has a side story about his character being a poor father, and his bad relationship with his kids, but this was easily the worst part of the film. Anytime we drove off into family land, the film dragged to a snail's pace, and the entire sub-story could have been eliminated.

There is also quite a bit of repetition throughout the film, as though Spielberg had one idea and loved it so much he slapped us with it 2, 3 or 6 times. For example, one use of the scene in which Cruise tells his daughter, played by Dakota Fanning, not to look around worked for great dramatic effect. By the third or fourth time, it was just getting silly. And just how many times were the aliens going to check out Tim Robbins basement? I was half expecting them to begin holding a weekly poker game down there.

The original book was not just a tale about humans, but about the arrogance of the aliens and the dangers of the abuse of power. In Speilberg's hands, that subtext seems to be gone, replaced by his usual daddy dearest theme, one he's pretty much beat to death by this point.

There are some very good special effects here though, and rather than take away from the story, they add quite a bit. There are some powerful visuals, including the hurtling train that passes by, and Tim Robbins does a nice turn as another survivor, who picks the wrong people to join him in his basement. It's a fluffy little summer flick with some big budget special effects and popcorn attitude.

Rating - Rent It.
Enjoy the film for what it is, and ignore all the things it isn't. It's certainly better than Independence Day, but isn't as interesting as the last Spielberg/Cruise sci-fi flick, Minority Report.

Spoiler Laden Thoughts
Nothing very major to spoil...
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I've heard that some folks find the movie confusing, but I'm not sure how that is. There are parts that don't make sense, but that's due in large part to two factors - sci-fi books from 1898 don't necessarily make a lot of sci-fi sense, and Spielberg isn't one to sweat the details.

Okay, we're supposed to believe the aliens put the ships in the ground long before we built cities. Of course, they were pretty damn accurate in where to put the ships, not that it would matter. And why put the ships there at all? There's no real explanation, and that's probably because there isn't a good one that actually makes sense, so better just to pretend it doesn't matter.

In the original book, I recall the aliens were vampirish, feeding on our blood. In this film, they are using our blood to fertilize their Martian broccoli, although that doesn't really make sense with them wandering around the Earth turning civilians - who clearly have no hope of hurting them - into dust.

Finally, these aliens appear to suffer from the same brain ailment that the aliens from Signs did - they can't conceive of a space suit. You'd assume that being space travelers for so long, that they'd have run across the virus or two in the past that wasn't particularly good for them, and learned from the experience, but apparently not.

If you're going to take the film seriously as science fiction, then these issues will kill it for you. If you're looking for a popcorn flick to spend a couple hours, you're likely to be far more forgiving of the giant plot holes.

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