Unusual and Great

Rating: 10/10 (4 July 2005)

Well, after so many diverse critics I went very skeptical to the movies, not expecting much. Now after seeing this film, I am amused about the bad reviews of some people. Sorry folks, this is not your typical popcorn-flick. Spielberg gave the genre a whole new dimension with this masterpiece. Okay, I agree: some parts were just illogical and this got mentioned enough by reviewers, so I don't have to go into it again. But despite that excusable fact, he created something new and not another "Independence Day"...Dirty, dark, dusty and yes, creepy.
I loved the original novel, one off my all-time favorites is the Musical Version by Jeff Wayne and yes: maybe he shouldve set the story in its original time but than again, why not show us that even as advanced as we think we are today, for someone else we might just be as worthless, than our animals are for some of us, and we get treated that way. Being not more than food and fertilizer. So, I could live with the fact that it plays NOW and not a century ago. Staying close to the novel, some little differences were programmed.
That the camera does never leave the main characters was also a very special fact, that made it for sure very uneasy to watch for people, expecting another ID4 or regular catastrophe flick. But some of the scenes are staying in your head and some pictures are "burning" themselves into ones brain, haunting you after the movie is over.
That scene were the mob is going for Rays (Cruises) Car was intense, terrifying and it showed how mankind is a threat to itself when it comes to the point of survival and how egoistic we are. We are not better then this alien invaders, was one thought of me and some friends at this point.
Something that bothered me, though, was the end. Not that quick end, that some are criticizing. That stayed true to the novel. No, the fact that the son survived was just a little bit to much and there Spielberg failed, not daring to give up the idea of a happy end. I usually love happy endings, but that one did not work out after all that terror, he showed us before.
As for the acting: it was alright. I don't like Cruise, never did, but he did a good job not being the hero he is used to play. Dakota Fanning is amazing and lets see how her career develops.
"War of the World" was a movie that dared to be different than the mainstream and other movies of that kind. For that I give it a 10 and forgive the few plot holes.
For the DVD I hope for an extended and unrated directors cut that will make a great movie perfect.
Enjoy and expect a new kind of sci-fi-horror....