War of the Worlds - 2005
Director: Steven Spielberg
Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins
War of the Worlds is the first movie I’ve taken time to review for some time. I’ve seen a few movies I rather liked over the last half of the year, but War of the Worlds is the first one I’ve seen that I honestly felt like commenting about. Let me share my experience with the movie, and you can take it from there.
First things, first. As I constantly must remind myself at the movies — one must suspend belief, keep reality at bay, and all that great advice of the movie sages. One must apply these rules especially in a Sci-Fi movie, right? You betcha!
Okay, okay, don’t get defensive right away — I’m not going to slam this movie! Not only did I think the movie worked for the most part, but I actually liked it as well, and believe me that’s always a plus after laying down that hard-earned cash at the ticket counter. I’ll tell you where I think this movie works, what I truly liked about this movie, and, perhaps I’ll slip in a few caveats for the weekend movie scouts.
Let me begin with what I liked about War of the Worlds. Okay, I’ll admit it; I liked the special effects. I understand that special effects have somewhat of a bad name today, but it’s not the fault of the effects. It’s the fault of the jerks that build entire movies around effects and forget to put in a decent story, dialogue, acting, and all that other “stuff” good movies are supposed to contain. The effects were downright cool. I found the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and hula dancing a number of times during the movies. Let me embellish.
The creatures in War of the Worlds, that more or less invade the terra firma of good, ol’ Earth, are most assuredly ugly, scary, and all those other things that movie creatures are supposed to be. The space ships, that have actually been just under the earth’s surface for a million years or so, are somewhat similar to the ships of the original movie of 1953, only more wicked and lifelike. The aliens that, eventually, make their way out of the ships are scary in the movie Alien’s kind of way — only I didn’t catch any of them drooling. Another special effect that I thought was, by far, the most disquieting aspect of the movie was the way the blasts from the gigantic, monster space ships destroy their prey — basically, human beings. One blast from the horrific tentacles of the ships seemed to turn all human life to—dust. I kept thinking, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” every time somebody was zapped. There are enough special effects to affect everyone in the family. So, if special effects are “the bomb,” then you need to see this movie.
I found the acting in the movie to be major league, and I found said acting to be the reason the movie, on the whole, simply works. While the movie plot zigs and zags about the screen, I found believability in the thespians that uttered and stuttered the dialogue offered. And, while I give kudos to Dakota Fanning’s various hysterics (much expected from a real, life child), I’m going out on a limb here and say outright that Tom Cruise captured the various mental stages I can only imagine any father would go through in such a phenomenal situation. While I believe there is no correlation between Hollywood’s various grumbling, talking heads’ references to Mr. Cruise “losing it,” I can attest that he surely seems close to it in the movie. Tim Robbins does a good job of appearing to do the same. It does seem to take a skilled actor to portray characters weaving in and out of sanity like drunken sailors on dry land.
Now, the downside, if I might.
The lack of a true story line. This might be somewhat understandable if one simply looks at the madness of the entire scenario. Other than the almost mundane reactions of most of the people that first “encounter” the aliens, which seem way too tame and non-reactionary for a post 911 world, the madness of the crowds seems totally real and expected. The horrific, mind numbing, insanity of such an event would, it seems, lend itself to a lack of story, but War of the Worlds is still a movie. More so, the movie is not a cameo filled Hollywood collage of famous actors in which one rather expects a loose or non-existent story line.
The lack of a true story line. That’s it, nothing earth-shattering or fun quelling. Not every movie has to have a “hidden message.” Note, I realize this movie probably does have a political undertone (secret message the politicos, intellectuals, and anarchists can only fathom) simply because it’s probably against the law not to have such messages woven into any Hollywood script. I would say the movie moves along a disjointed path of connected scenarios that lead to a more than abrupt resolution. Be advised this “path” may be the chosen route of Mr. Spielbergs? If so, the meandering path was, ultimately, successful—the movie does leave one fairly dazed.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I go to the movies to escape reality for a spell, and I can claim with all honesty I was able to escape reality during War of the Worlds. So, if you enjoy good effects, enjoy a few scares, have nothing against solid acting, and are not fearful of non-linear, connect-the-dots kind of scripts this movie just might be a whole lot of fun—feel like taking a chance?
Jay Mouton
wholerest@comcast.net