Movie Haiku - War Of The Worlds

www.waroftheworldsmovie.co.uk


Dir: Steven Spielberg


Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins


Lightning strikes the earth

tripods rise up, run away

shhhh Tim be quiet


The most anticipated movie of the Summer sees Steven Spielberg team up with Tom Cruise to bring us a new adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells novel, the original alien invasion story. We’re introduced to dockyard worker Ray (Cruise) and it’s established pretty quickly that he’s a bit of a loser, separated from his wife (Miranda Otto) and unable to communicate with his teenage son, Robbie (Chatwin), although he does still have a strong bond with younger daughter, Rachel (Fanning). He’s looking after the kids for the weekend when an electrical storm hits, knocking out all the power and bringing the town to a standstill. As he joins the other locals outside the town hall they all get a nasty surprise when the ground opens up and a huge metal tripod emerges and then starts to blast them all to smithereens. The rest of the film is a game of hide and seek as Ray and his family try to stay alive as the tripods set about the destruction of mankind. With Spielberg at the helm you’d expect War Of The Worlds to be the safe bet of the season, but in places he fumbles the ball completely. The film gets off to a cracking start with only a rudimentary introduction to the main players before the tripods appear and the action kicks off. This is Spielberg at his very best as panic hits the streets and the alien invaders begin their indiscriminate rampage; it’s frantic, it’s tense and it looks fantastic as you’re placed right in the centre of the drama. The camera work is dazzling and no more so than when Ray commandeers the only working vehicle and hightails it onto the freeway, dodging the other stationary cars whilst barking orders to Robbie and Rachel as the camera takes us inside, outside and around the speeding car. The action doesn’t let up as the family then fall victim of some unpleasant mob violence, in a genuinely unsettling scene, and then encounter further tripods as they flee with hundreds of other citizens on board a ferry. Things finally pause for breath once they’re holed up with loner Ogilvy (Robbins) who is determined to find a weakness in the metal monsters and fight back. The scene remains tense, especially with Ogilvy’s protestations placing them in increasing danger, but from here on in the film never quite recovers as it limps along to its rather underwhelming climax. Whilst the film takes the same initiative as Signs in its focus on one man’s battle in the midst of an alien invasion, this approach is also the film’s Achilles heel; for most of the duration we’re left completely baffled by the hows and whys of events around us – but then maybe that’s the point. The film is also hampered by a series of events which stretch credibility beyond breaking point; the aftermath of a plane crash (seemingly devoid of any casualties) which Ray is able to steer through without sustaining so much as a puncture is just the beginning. Then there’s the technical aspects to consider – whilst there’s no denying the quality of the special effects for the most part, Spielberg falls into the same trap as George Lucas and just bombards the audience with relentless CGI. And too many times you’re acutely aware that you’re watching actors on a film set (wait to you see the quite appalling green-screen effects when Ray is perched on top of a hillside watching the action below) so it almost feels like you’re watching a colour-tinted movie from the fifties, which surely is not the result that was intended. Cruise dominates the film, appearing in nearly every scene and opinion has been split between me and my friends as to whether this is one of his best performances or not (for my part I don’t think it is), but again Fanning demonstrates why she is the best child actor in the business right now. I’m really divided over War Of The Worlds – parts of it are great, parts of it are poor – but it’s not the big event that I anticipated it to be, sadly coming across more like a big budget B movie.

soulmining rating: ***