AmateurMovieReviews.com

In 1898, the novel War of the Worlds by HG Wells was published; it was a forward thinking tome from Wells' imagination dealing with subject matter humanity had yet to seriously consider. On October 30, 1938 the novel was performed on Mercury Theatre On Air radio as a Halloween treat and was read by actor Orson Welles. Mass panic ensued as many listeners believed it to be a genuine Martian invasion they were listening to live, despite frequent spoken notices to the contrary during the broadcast. It is thought to be the most successful dramatic broadcast in the history of radio. In 1953, the first War of the Worlds movie was released, directed by George Pal...it went on to win an Academy Award for its special effects.

Stephen Spielberg gave us his version in 2005, with the basic plot line of the story the same but set in modern times, as an illustration of the alien war "through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it". We begin on an ordinary day in New Jersey, our main character Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a dock worker and leaving the job for the day to return home to care for his two children, Rachel and Robbie. Ray is divorced, and his wife, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) has custody but is dropping off the kids for him while she travels to Boston to visit her parents with her new husband. The kids simply don't respect him at all and have little faith in his ability to provide and care for them.

The invasion begins with a spectacular electrical storm...the first indication that something is amiss is the repeated lighting strikes in the exact location. When the storm ends, not only is the power off but nothing electronic will function, including cars and phones. Ray heads out to investigate and discovers with the rest of the residents a hole in the ground of a busy intersection...the ground begins to rumble, and a giant tripod machine emerges from beneath the surface, trumpeting a sound that will make your hair stand on end. It begins to move, blasting people with heat rays and turning them to ashes. Ray manages to escape and return home to his children. They flee in a minivan that has a replaced solenoid (done at Ray's suggestion to get it working again) and head for Mary Ann's house in the suburbs. It has been untouched by the aliens, and the family hides in the basement overnight. When they hear a rumbling in the night, followed by an unearthly screeching, they take further cover in a sub-basement room. At first light, they find the home and everything around them destroyed by a 747 that has fallen from the sky.

It becomes obvious to us at this point that the message is 'you cannot hide, you are not safe'...the family heads for Boston in hopes of finding Mary Ann alive and well. They lose Robbie along the way when he decides to help the military fight the tripods, and quickly notice a 'red weed' that seems to be taking over all plant life. We soon discover that the alien tripods are for harvesting humans, and their blood is extracted and sprayed by the tripods all over the landscape to aid in the growth of the red weed. There is a flaw to the alien takeover plan, of course...they have no immunity to the bacteria that occurs naturally in our environment, and it begins killing them off a bit at a time. The humans are victorious.

Sounds great, doesn't it? It isn't. It was perhaps the most boring 116 minutes of my life. Tom Cruise as Ray is an acceptable choice, and I believe him to be a wonderful and gifted actor (think Born on the Fourth of July, not Top Gun, okay?)...but the script is AWFUL. Trite, predictable, with nearly zero character development. Dakota Fanning (adorable and talented!) as Rachel is the only one we get to know with any sort of depth, and it isn't enough...I was actually GLAD when the tripod snatched her up because I knew the movie was almost over. Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy is a waste of space in the film...he's so poorly written that the lines that SHOULD be meaningful and thought provoking made me roll my eyes and groan. And the worst part of the film? The plot holes. We're told that the aliens have been watching us and placed their ships on our planet millions of years ago..but how did they know we would evolve and become human? They couldn't...and therefore the ships being here is ridiculous, as they need human blood to feed and there were no humans when they were placed. As far as I'm concerned, Spielberg just tossed that in so he could have a special effects extravaganza with ships coming out of the ground. And yes, the effects are top notch and very cool. But that's all there really is to the film...so if you're bored and a graphics nut, rent it. If you're an HG Wells fan, don't waste your time.