War Of The Worlds (2 Disc Special Edition) [2005]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Despite super effects, a huge budget, and the cinematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies (such as Jaws or Jurassic Park). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." --Doug Thomas, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Not a bad action-movie but..........2008-02-17

that's about it...

Good special effects, fast-paced but no real outstanding performances by the lead actors.

To me this has always been a space-opera kind of story (both the book and the 70's (or was it '60's) double album (musical). For me the story worked better set in Victorian England but maybe that's just me...

Not a must have IMHO, but a good rental

Dreadful.......2008-01-21

I bought this because the book is one of my favourites. The opening was promising, but it deteriorated rapidly. Blue collar worker goes on noisy, incoherent trudge from New Jersey to Boston with his two spoilt children in tow. The children constantly pointing his poverty out to him was a particularly irritating sting in the tail. For a movie with a lot of noise, and a lot of "action" very little actually happened. Definitely worth a miss.

Would be 5 stars but for the length.......2008-01-15

Despite all the negative responses, I was pleasantly surprised by WOTW. My only criticism is that it isn't long enough. I hope therefore that an exteneded version comes out in future.

That aside, the film is great but likely to polarise opinion; it is a grim and often unforgiving experience. The aftermath of an alien invasion feels disconcertingly realistic. The alien spacecraft (flawlessly created) seem gigantic on screen and are genuinley unsettling. This is a very different type of Sci-Fi film, more akin with the somber opressiveness of Dawn of the Dead, than with Independance Day or the like.

I think it is successful, I can understand why others don't take to it though. If not your thing, then perhaps this is one to come back to once the dust settles and you know what to expect.

One last thing, which deserves mention, is that the effects are sublime throughout and it is worth seeing simply for this.

War of the Spoiled American Brats.......2007-12-30

What can I say? Unmitigated crap. Tedious hysterical over acting on the part of Cruise and irritating brats screaming and shouting incoherently all the time, particularly the vile little girl - oh that the Martians had taken her away and feasted upon her as Wells describes in his novel. The film opens promisingly with the voice of the wonderful Morgan Freeman intoning the ominous opening words of Wells' novel:
"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's..."
But after that it is all rapidly downhill from there on. The film is an insult to Wells and his book and entirely misses the point that Wells is making. You have only to read the words of Wells' anonymous narrator as he stands on Primrose Hill surveying his abandoned city and suddenly realising that the nightmare is over and that the Martians are dead to understand that Spielberg's gung ho, militaristic denouement is nonsense:
"All about the pit, and saved as by a miracle from everlasting destruction, stretched the great Mother of Cities. Those who have only seen London veiled in her sombre robes of smoke can scarcely imagine the naked clearness and beauty of the silent wilderness of houses."

Lend lease?.......2007-12-24

The problem with this film, which as a film is quite good, is that it strays, like the 1953 version, from the book at square one. Simply put, H.G.Wells set his book in the UK, Surrey and London to be precise. Until someone makes a film that does the same, film versions will never, IMO, be viable viewing.

Even Jeff Wayne, an american, realised this when he created his superb musical version.

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