War of the Worlds (2005) Review

War of the Worlds (2005) Review

 

Earlier this year, I read H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel The War of the Worlds for the first time and was surprised by how scary it remains well over a century after its publication. Widely regarded as the origin of the “alien invasion” story template we’ve seen countless times, after reading it I was drawn back to the successful modernized film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg, which I saw when it first came out twenty years ago. I was just a kid, and I didn’t like it at all despite it being from one of my favourite directors and about a subject I have always found entertaining, but I was curious how well it holds up now and if I would enjoy it more or less today. I certainly didn’t hate rewatching it, but don’t expect this to be a glowing reappraisal of Spielberg’s darkest take on alien visitors.

Tom Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a pretty normal everyday guy who is divorced and trying to reconnect with his son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and daughter (Dakota Fanning) when the giant tripod alien war machines emerge from the ground and begin wreaking havoc. It’s a good blend of staying true to the source material and updating it for a modern setting, but one big change is having the tripods already on earth underground instead of coming from space, which helps to avoid the “arrival” clichés and adds a new fear factor to the invasion concept. There’s a fun aside from a character in a crowd at one point when they’re talking about other major cities around the world getting attacked: “Nothings going on in Europe!” It’s funny because that’s where the novel takes place, but again, despite some melding of source material characters and changing the narrative’s focus to a family, it works as its own interpretation of the classic story.

Everything you would expect to be top notch in a Spielberg production is—the cast, the action, the production design, the ILM special effects, the John Williams score, the Janusz Kaminski cinematography—but it doesn’t quite all come together to make War of the Worlds reach Spielberg’s previous heights. Now, that is to say it’s still quite well done, because when we’re talking about Steven freaking Spielberg, we’re talking about one of the highest bars imaginable. In terms of suspense, there are many standout scenes. One of the best parts is when they’re hiding from the tripod probe in the cellar. It’s like an evil version of the water tentacle from The Abyss behaving like the raptors in the kitchen from Jurassic Park. Spielberg is a master of the daylight horror movie. He did it with Jaws and Jurassic Park and does it again here with some of the tensest, creepiest, most suspenseful bright daylight horror scenes, whether it’s the tripods emerging from the ground or dozens of dead bodies floating down a river.

Even though it seems like everything came together to make War of the Worlds a stellar alien invasion film, not every idea works. Morgan Freeman narrates the beginning and ending for some reason, and after three quarters of the movie being increasingly intense and grim, it comes off as disappointingly easy for the army to defeat the aliens, and with it being a story about a family that’s just trying to survive and isn’t really directly part of the “war” against the Martians, their defeat doesn’t really have anything to do with the main characters, it just kind of happens alongside them so they can have their happy little ending. In past Spielberg films from this genre there is often effective comedic relief to help the audience get through all the tension and terror, but in this one, I found there were some meek attempts at humour that didn’t work. All of these issues pale in comparison to the primary reason I don’t love it.

My biggest problem with this movie is the core cast. The family is just not likeable, nor do they represent effective surrogates for the audience to imagine themselves in their place—at least, they weren’t effective for this audience member. The most insufferable character is the son. It’s partly the actor’s fault, partly the way he’s written, but Tom Cruise constantly yelling at him and getting mad also doesn’t help. This movie was from the more meme-able Cruise era, where he’s constantly running, has some unhinged crazy energy, and wears a ball cap too often. He’s really unlikeable for pretty much the first half, and I get that the point is he’s a bad dad and doesn’t know how to get through to his kids, but it doesn’t make for a very enjoyable or compelling story. Dakota Fanning actually does quite a good job, especially as the youngest cast member, recalling other previous great youthful performances in Spielberg alien films. I found her super annoying when I watched this as a kid, but I appreciate her and her innocent, traumatized character more now than the other two (although she does scream a lot) or Tim Robbins’ character, who comes into the story quite late and undercuts some of the later scenes.

War of the Worlds certainly would have turned out more like Skyline or Battle: Los Angeles (to name some other far worse alien invasion movies from not long after this one) had it not been in the hands of one of the best directors of all-time, but even with the Spielberg touch, I still just don’t love it. The desperation of humanity is captured well in scenes, but all the greatness in this movie is built on a rickety foundation. I enjoyed revisiting it and think the best aspects still hold up well, but that family storyline still leaves something to be desired. One of my unique problems is that I’ve seen Scary Movie 4 too many times, which makes it harder to take certain scenes seriously when I’m thinking of the spoof versions. Still, it’s lightyears ahead of the remake that came out earlier this year, isn’t it? Oh yeah, imagine my surprise when I saw a new War of the Worlds pop up on Amazon Prime this summer starring Ice Cube. I didn’t plan it! I’ll chock it up to a cosmic coincidence…and save my review of that remake for another day…