War of The Worlds
While War of The Worlds is no second-coming of cinema, Steven Spielberg's big-budget film delivers everything it
promises, and just a little more to make the trip memorable. War of The Worlds isn't all that far removed from your
typical action film, but it claims a healthy differential.
Instead of a main character or two saving the world, there's people just trying to survive. The story begins with Ray, a
father of two who's separated from their mother and is taking his kids for the weekend. After around 10 minutes of light
exposition we learn that his son Robbie resents him and his daughter Rachel, while more accepting, doesn't have the best
raport with him either. These opening scenes admittedly don't do much to endear you to the characters, although the film
takes care enough of its audience for introductions to them, which is enough to begin.
After a scene where some thunder-less lightning scares the wits out of Rachel and Ray, we follow Ray down to the point of
contact where it repeatedly struck. Then it begins. Most films will deliver an opening action sequence to establish its
theme that lasts for 5 minutes, 10 if you're lucky. War of The Worlds launches into such an intense barrage of
action, eye-popping effects and simply chilling destruction, that after five minutes you're ready for a well-timed scene
of further character exposition to lower your pulse rate and process what you've just seen. However, you're cheated out
of that thought pretty quickly, and it all starts up again. When the action begins, it barely lets up for the next hour.
The sheer terror and confusion when the alien tripods begin their attack is as thrilling for the audience as it is
unexpected for Ray. As buildings collapse around him and cars explode next to him, his battle to escape the sheer
incomprehensible nature of the threat pursuing him, is crafted in perfect silence. The destruction is loud, but there's
no dissociative music that so often detracts from major moments in Hollywood spectacles. Because of it, War of The
Worlds enjoys a partial documentary feel through this opening action scene. As he runs through the remains of buildings
and people alike, the confusion, fear and primal sense of escape Ray finds is palpable.
Ray is an asshole. He really doesn't have any idea what he's supposed to do in this situation. Of course, no one really
would. Being chased be giant alien robots intent on incinerating you evoke very few rational responses, with fleeing the
sole thought making any degree of sense. Running on instinct, Ray rescues his children from impending doom, where a small
time to rest doesn't give the characters much chance of working out their problems. His son is an asshole as well, while
Rachel doesn't help as she screams for her mother and begins to lose control. There's a recognisable, but welcome, lack of
unrealistic and polished role models in War of The Worlds, the kind that seem to populate all films such as this.
Don't mistake that as fault in War of The Worlds.
Robbie's scene or two of re-assurance that he's there for his little sister lends an air of humanity to him, but really
he's just angry, like many kids from broken homes. Dakota Fanning delivers another gold performance. This time she's not
playing a character 5 years older than her age, she's just a girl, who like all little girls crave the security of her
parents. Turn the world upside down on the security they know, and just coping becomes a luxury. You see the horror in her
eyes, her innocence is stripped away and by film's end the true terror of the death she's seen is reflected in the face of
a girl, lost forever. Tom Cruise's Ray becomes as rounded as his relationships with his kids. In the end they have a new
found respect for him. Whatever his failings were as father, the devotion he shows and lengths he goes to, to make sure his
kids survive are faultless. His kids are the most important things in his life and their survival means his.
War of The Worlds isn't the most developed of films. Following Ray and his kids and seeing only what they see means
character perspective is limited. We don't cross to a military perspective, a European perspective or an alien perspective,
we see what Ray and his kids see. Is this a fault of the plot or what just you're used to expect seeing in an alien
invasion story? It's admittedly a narrow plot, but that's how it was intended and it works in a story about an alien
invasion, where a family is just trying to survive
There are a few major unresolved questions in War of The Worlds that if answered, wouldn't have upset anyone. While
we do catch an extended glimpse of the aliens themselves in a respectable reveal, we learn virtually nothing about them.
Humans by nature are vengeful creatures. When you've had most of the planet's population annihilated, the least the
audience could be rewarded with is a little retribution when there's the chance. Although we do see a few nice take-downs
of the tripods, the aliens themselves exit without their due suffering. Despite the references to terror and the holocaust,
perhaps watching a mob of people tear apart and cheer over the death of a corpse could have been too much? Nah.
The pacing for War of The Worlds is great, up until the basement sequence. It seems that half of the film is set
down there, which bogs it down for too long. Tim Robbins' crazy guy character only had one moment of real interest, used
as a device to reflect Ray's commitment to protecting his daughter. Other than that, he, and the basement sequence was too
drawn out. Woken from rest, the film's story picks up again with some interesting moments, but feels a little disjointed
right up unitl an ending that feels too unrewarding. The incomprehensible possibility that a species that has mastered
space travel wouldn't properly investigate and protect themselves from all possible threats is to much to swallow.
Especially when we've seen various spins on this level of failure before in Signs and Independence Day.
But War of The Worlds isn't what Independence Day should have been, and Independence Day wasn't what
War of The Worlds should have been, they are their own stories, but for the sake of believability, show mankind
losing rather than cop out with such an unreasonable and simple explanation.
While a fitting and rewarding conclusion would have increased the effect on an audience walking out of War of The
Worlds, the stylish, sustained and in your face dread that Steven Spielberg's War of The Worlds invokes from
the beginning means it's one of best rides you're going to have in a theatre. Spielberg is able to build to a sense of
terror and keep us there through almost all of the film, rather than just for a sequence or two. An added air of realism
and believability - at least as far as you can believe alien invasion stories - makes one wish more films could engage and
thrill us this way.
out of ten
Reviewed by Paul Boschen
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