Spielberg raises the sci fi / horror / blockbuster genre by injecting what is usually left out - personal drama and fragile heroes.

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2005)

Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning and screenwriters Josh Friedman and David Koep are at the top of their respective games in this version of H.G. Well's War of the Worlds. Special kudos to director of photography and two time Academy award winner Janusz Kaminski who gave the movie the dark, gritty look that only heightened the already tense script.
Unless you have lived in a cave for your entire life, I do not need to explain the gist of the "War of the Worlds". Whether it is the original book or the Orson Welles 1938 radio broadcast or the 1953 George Pal version (I loved that one)- the basic awful attraction are all the same: Aliens invade, possessing unbelievable military superiority and they, without warning, without explanation, without mercy, start committing mass killings of killings, extermination of "earthlings". That simple tone and set up are beautifully arresting. The alien invaders are both a metaphor for any invading force that we want to pin the "evil moniker on" whether it be Nazis or terrorists or whatever and the fact that they are mainly faceless and they kill indiscriminately of our race or geographical location make them something else. An evil force that unifies all races, all nations, all religious and political factions together to fight them.
And in a certain sense, that is the rosy picture presented in this usual genre. People unite against an outside, evil force but Spielberg turns this sentiment on it's head. In his vision, told through the eyes of Tom Cruise's character, a very flawed but real portrayal of a man who seems to have lost most of his emotional ties in his life, in this vision we do not see people pull together but we see mass pandemonium and panic and Americans, earthlings, turn on ourselves.
This is one of the true horrors depicted in this movie that makes it so riveting, depressing and scary at the same time. In one particular scene, (ATTENTION: MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD)- When confronted with the possibility that the recklessness of one of the survivors might result in the death of his daughter, the Tom Cruises character takes matters into his own hands and kills this character. This actually shocked me in a way that I haven't been shocked in a movie in a long time. In depicting this, not only did Spielberg and writers Friedman and Koep take a daring step in making the fallen hero incredible fallible but they also pulled the moral rug out from under him and the viewing audience.
This movie is full of nightmares, of chilling images rendered in a horrible and beautiful way. It is a story, really, of survival during incredible violence and most of all, it is a story about consequence. We see the main character, Tom Cruise make choices during the entire movie, many that we, the audience, may argue are the incorrect ones but they are made under the shadow of survival and love for his children.