War of the Worlds
|
Director Steven Spielberg has been giving interviews lately, referring to his new version of War of the Worlds as a “science fiction / horror movie” — he’s said, “I gave the benevolent aliens a couple of shots, and now I'm going to try my hand at the worst kind.” And the aliens are indeed evil in War of the Worlds. But a horror movie? I am not sure I agree.
Tom Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, an indifferent father to two children — an angry teenage son, Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and a philosophical young daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning). In this contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’s classic novel, the annihilation of humankind is seen through the terrified eyes of one American family fighting to survive the hostile takeover of tripod-like machines driven by alien invaders.
Ray does whatever it takes to get his children away from this merciless new enemy, as people by the thousands wander the streets, their cars and power sources disabled by mysterious electro-magnetic pulses. Moving across the shattered countryside, the Ferriers become tangled in the desperate tide of refugees fleeing from the extraterrestrial army of tromping Tripods. As in the first film version of War of the Worlds (1954), the military gets involved in a big way, but we only see this on the periphery — everything is shot as if cameras were following only Ray and his kids. That’s an interesting approach, but it does get a little claustrophobic at times.
The acting is as excellent as one would expect from Oscar nominee Cruise and the phenomenal Fanning. Unfortunately, Cruise’s character is a little hard to get a handle on. I don’t mind gray areas, but there are some things Ray does which don’t seem very authentic. In fact, there are quite a few loose ends: someone is murdered in a very calculated way for no good reason; Ray is given skills at the beginning of the movie which don’t pan out at the end; and while Spielberg does his usual tidy bow ending, many leaps of logic are still required.
War of the Worlds is the kind of movie that dazzles and delights you while it’s playing, then when you think about it later on you see all the plot holes. The important thing is, it does what it was made to do: Entertain. War of the Worlds is a big ol’ popcorn flick with extra salt and butter. The explosive special effects and action sequences are stunners for sure and there will be a lot more fingernail marks on the arms of theater chairs in the weeks to come.
But is it scary? Is it a sci-fi horror flick? In comparison with Spielberg’s other scary movies (Duel, Jaws,
War of the Worlds may not be a perfect movie, but it’s the perfect movie for a summer fling.
= = =
Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson