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War of the Worlds is a book, a radio broadcast, and a 1940's movie. All these formats were exceedingly scary for their time. This remake does not disappoint. The special effects make the action believable and frightening. Cruise personalizes the story. We can empathize with him. First his unknowing scoffing at the freak electrically storm, than his realization that there is real danger. His concern for his children's safety in circumstances he can not control is every parent's worse nightmare. The fear and loss of hope he feels hiding out in the farmhouse basement from the alien machines is deeply disturbing. I have to say that the sequence in which his character carries out a successful attack on one of the tripods was superfluous, which is why I only give the movie four stars. That whole scenario was a distraction from the unrelenting helplessness of the situation. This is the point of the book, the broadcast and both movies. Humankind is helpless in the face of this invasion. It is this slow and steady realization that makes this movie so dramatic. I found the scene with the burning train roaring pass particularly horrifying.Read full review
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If one were to make the perhaps inevitable comparison to the 1950s movie it comes across heavy handed. But the earlier movie does convey the same type of terror. .just not on such a grand scale with such ease. The relationships between the characters, which I cannot pretend to go into very well here, is the most terrifying aspect of the movie. Not that the 50's were paradise but relationships weren't so #visibly# "broken." That is also includes the man to Creator relationship. There always has been an odd thing about the alien invasion idea as it is depicted in this story. If aliens were indeed "scrutinizing" earth for any length of time it seems that they would been aware of the diseases or even common colds (etc.) which are ever so common to humans. Surely they should've been sensitive to the idea of importing disease when ingesting people in #this# movie . These are very naive aliens. (Unless they believed technology made them invulnerable). Do I hear a commentary on present war activity ? Very odd that war technology could be so advanced but medical (for lack of a better word) advancement is not present. Spielberg is a master at his craft so I'll have to continue to reflect on the movie.Read full review
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Having read through many reviews here, I find that most would agree that this film leaves much to be desired. It left me a bit senseless, like the way you feel after you go to work for 10 years at the same time everyday and one day you wake up and go, "Wow, I could have had a real life". After seeing the trailer for this film, I somehow knew that I wasn't going catch this at the theater. The trailer is usually a pretty good snapshot of the tone for whole film. The original trailer just gave very small hints of what was coming, but never really gave you enough to chew on while the film was still in production. When the trailer of "Independence Day" came out I was really interested in catching the film in the theater, however, you need to remember from which perspective that film was coming from. It wasn't a hopeless (hey, we are all going to die today) type of film. It was positive and upbeat, even when the aliens were getting ready to incinerate those people on the top of the building. Tom Cruise's character development was a bit overdone, although I can believe in him being a responsible parent. That's the thing about disaster movies. You never can really know what you would do if you wound up in the same situations as this. Dakota Fanning was great as a disturbed and shocked child and the scene where she stands at the river and sees bodies floating down was really a powerful scene, showing the enormity of the massive death and destruction going on. When Tim Robbin's character was introduced, that's when I knew that this film had taken a wrong turn. Robbin's paranoia and hopeless despair really was a downer for me. When the aliens started turning the landscape into living blood, things really got creepy for me, ever since I really started to get more and more germ phobic. Oh well, what's a little spilled blood all over the world? There seemed to be something cold and dark about this film, since it spent much time focusing on the immediate fears of Cruise's character. The reuniting of there family was alright, but I thought the film should have gone on a bit further in showing a last ditch attempt with more firepower from the sky. I'm going to give this film a 4/5 for attempting to make a film that would not only be good but one you would like to watch again. I saw this film two times and think that maybe watching it once ever 5 years or so might be a bit too much. IF YOU LIKE MY REVIEWS, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO LET ME KNOW BY VOTING. THANKS!Read full review
This is a most stress-filled and exciting film, with good reason. Poorly equipped for fatherhood (no Suri jokes), Papa Tom finds himself responsible for the safety of his two children who are visiting for the weekend when the earth is attacked by very unfriendly aliens with an agenda. Junior has rebellion issues and Blondie's precocious and spoiled. All this is very worrisome and stressful for Papa Tom. The film progresses from there to nonstop run for safety activity that is thrilling and well done. Spielberg creates an ominous sense of impending danger and confusion in the first act. It feels frighteningly real as everyone has to suddenly react to the peril that crops up so quickly. The movie takes you on the family's wild ride for safety as Papa Tom's efforts to help them survive moment to moment close in around them. Cruise does a good job of conveying a barely controlled sense of panic, as you would under these circumstances. Papa Tom not only has to contend with trying to stay out of the paths of roving, homocidal tripods (who always look as if they are about to take a picture), but has to deal with other people who act nasty and generally lose it. These create more worries. There were a few nit-picky things that grated and I mention them now: (1) Even though Papa Tom found the only operable car in the area it still would have needed to be a hovercraft to travel more than a quarter of a mile to get around all the broken down cars littering the road, much less make it all the way up to the rural Hudson Valley area; (2) They outran the tripods on the hill which were pretty darn close considering the short human legs to long tripod strides ratio; (3) The kid's brattiness always seemed to emerge at the worst moments, as when faux-goth-punk son decides the middle of a battlefield is a dandy place for a family argument (what was he going to fight the tripods with anyway, his cunning?); or the little blond albatross gets all brave, picky and mouthy when it comes to going to the bathroom outdoors not long after being completely psychotic with terror (did she ever get to pee? I know, I shouldn't obsess on such things). All in all and in spite of the above objections, I found it a satisfying movie. Cruise kept his couch jumping to a minimum and the action was trademark Spielberg in the good way (though he will probably never surpass "Schindler's List" and that's as it should be). The film keeps you on the edge of your seat with the right amount of breathing space moments. For extra amusement, watch it with others in a darkened room, sneak out and quietly set a tripod with a video camera nearby. Watch the fun as your guests discover it hovering ominously behind them, then turn on the flash. They may not speak to you for awhile, but it's worth it.Read full review
As a fan of the original 1898 HG Wells novel, and the original 1953 movie, as well as the Mercury Theatre radio broadcast narrated by Orson Welles, I was disappointed after seeing this movie in the theatre. Tom Cruise was very good in his role, as was Tim Robbins, and the special effects were excellent, but the movie as a whole just didn't seem to mesh well. The original book and movie encompassed the whole world fighting the Martians with all of humanity's very survival at stake. This Spielberg offering concentrates on Cruise and his children dealing with relationship issues and their apparent salvation if they can journey to his ex-wife in an apparently untouched major city. Dakota Fanning screams a lot, the ending is anti-climatic, and the new story fails when compared to the original. The dvd release also has few noteworthy extras. If you want to watch good science fiction purchase the original 1953 War of the Worlds which was re-released in a Special Collector's Edition. It has great extras including additional commentaries, specials on Wells, and even the original War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast. Keep Watching the Skies!Read full review
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