Movie Notes: War Of The Worlds

April 6th, 2008

= 3 stars

Starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Synopsis

Aliens invade Earth and all hell breaks loose.

The Good

• Depicts the chaos likely to ensue during an alien invasion. If aliens could travel across space to earth, they’d certainly have superior technology, made evident by the ease in which these aliens destroy cities with overwhelming force.
• I love how Ray’s (Tom Cruise) inept evacuation, resulting in a box of mustard and peanut butter. Also chilling is a panicky scene where a mob seizes Ray’s car.
• Top notch special effects, in particular the large towering alien tripods, whose a call resembles the alien’s low notes from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
• Great concept of showing everything from Ray’s point of view.

The Bad

• A crazily unsatisfying ending. None of the characters say anything and instead just stare at each other. How about offering dad a stiff drink and explaining what’s been going on for the past few days?
• I felt it was unnecessary to show the aliens, specifically when a few check out Tim Robbins’ basement, and one hanging out of a tripod.

Conclusion

I have mixed feelings about this flick. The first three quarters are really good, but at about the part where Cruise finds Tim Robbins in the house and is sucked into the tripod-anus it falls apart. The ending is truly one of the most anti-climactic ones I’ve seen recently. Still, there’s enough here to make it worth a rental and marvel at Spielberg’s ability with sci-fi post AI.

IMBD: War Of The Worlds
Wikipedia: War Of The Worlds
Rotten Tomatoes: War Of The Worlds 73%