Attack of the Tripods

Movie Review: War of the Worlds

This won't be easy to review this movie without giving too much away - but I will try my best. So let's start with the story.

Ray, Tom Cruise, is an almost deadbeat dad who is a New Jersey dock worker. It's "his weekend" with the kids and the first few minutes of the movie identify his lack of maturity when it comes to being a dad, but this is a character who is definitely flawed and it seems that he cares, but just doesn't know how to be a dad. His kids are not so thrilled to be at dad's place for the weekend and it only gets worse for them. I must say that Dakota Fanning turns in another stellar performance.

The movie picks up the pace very quickly, but not so quickly that you don't get to know these characters a little bit - Steven Spielberg is really good at this method of storytelling. He gives us enough of an insight into the people before introducing the shark..I mean aliens.

The next 45 minutes are completely intense. This movie is full of shock and terror for the audience - who would expect these things to have been on the planet for a million years, just lying in wait...certainly not the people in the theatre with me. I think the reason these initial scenes are so scary, is that you are feeling the panic and desperation of the people running for their lives because Spielberg shot it from the point of view of these people - well done!

The other thing that is done so well in this movie is that many things are implied, but never shown - a river of death, and war being played out between the military and the tripods and just enough data being passed around to make your own mind start to come to conclusions about the aliens. Again, this is what Spielberg does best. Think back to that shark eating his first victim, but all you see is this girl being dragged around the water and screaming...next thing you know, she is pulled under and there is nothing but silence. Spielberg pulls from all of his previous films in this movie - there is an homage to his raptors in the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park that takes place in Tim Robbin’s basement – you will all recognize it.

There are kids in danger, a lot of death and destruction, and pure terror in this movie, but without it, I don't think this movie would be as good. You have a feeling that there is no way out of this mess and everyone is going to die - and I loved every minute of it.

I will say the movie drops off in the second half, but not so much that I minded - after all, how do you sustain such intensity for 2 hours? I don't think I could have taken it. There is one scene that bothered me and I think should be removed - there is a scene where Ray and his family are attacked for having the only working vehicle - I could have lived without this scene. Unfortunately, it is pretty honest as to what would probably happen, but still, I'll be skipping that chapter when the DVD comes into my house.

The effects are amazing - hats off to ILM once again! They really did the trick to help you believe these aliens (and their freaky red vines - anyone buy Twizzlers at the concession stand?) were real. The destruction, the incineration of human beings, the ominous tripods - it was all amazing.

Look - ignore the crap in the media and go see this movie. Who cares if they are or if they aren't; ignore the Scientology-factor (I have for years working at my company). Go see this movie and enjoy every minute of it! I give it high marks :)