flawed but spectacular

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2006)

Inside the first fifteen minutes of this film we learn that there is something about to happen to the Earth. Newsreaders describe stories of freak electrical storms and a giant black cloud appears in the sky. Its very windy and all of a sudden bursts of lightning start to smack the ground. Five minutes later Tom Cruise watches as a giant mechanical tripod appears from under the ground and proceeds to blast everything with its giant laser cannons.
It can be said that similarly themed movie Independence Day is one of the best examples of a summer blockbuster movie that is great to look at but poor to think about. What that film did have was a tense and tension filled opening forty minutes. The giant space-ships moved above the major cities and then.....waited. They stopped and waited for the right time to attack. In war of the worlds the opening attack is done and dusted inside of twenty minutes. This is a mistake.
Steven Spielberg has of course made some of the greatest movies of all time. he has always been a very good visionary director, putting images on the screen that no one can match (from rampaging T-Rex's to hundreds of men being massacred on a beach). The opening attack by the tripod in war of the worlds is one of the most terrifying and brilliant scenes of the last decade. the tripod itself (kept under wraps until the films release) is brilliantly realised through great effects. however, we have only just met Tom Cruise's character, and at this time he is presented as anything but a nice guy. so we watch this scene not bothered about whether he dies or not. and the fact that we are so early into the film means that there hasn't been any time to build up tension. as a standalone scene this would be regarded as classic, but as the opening to a film its somewhat misplaced.
To Cruise is the irresponsible dad who has to take care of endlessly screaming daughter Rachel and endlessly moaning son Robbie. Dakota Fanning (playing Rachel) screams and cries her way through the film, and while this might be what a ten year old kid would do in real life, this isn't what we go to the cinema for. One particular scene, when the tripod is being destroyed in the films climax, we keep cutting to Tom and Dakota sat inside a random giant pipe. Dakota is sat screaming her head off for no apparent reason. if it wasn't illegal and morally wrong, I'm sure tom would have just put her in the path of the tripod and said 'come and get her boys!' Placing this film in the eyes of one family instead of the whole film is a good idea on paper, but not in a movie. To keep the movie going and to keep the audience informed, Cruise keeps meeting characters who spill exposition like nobody's business. Tom- 'hey soldier whats happening?' soldier- 'well we saw the tripod earlier and it fell over. its being erratic' and so on. the family also meets crazy Tim Robbins, who thinks that he can take down one of the tripods with his trusty shotgun. in one dramatic scene some of the alien invaders enter Tim Robbins basement and him and cruises family have to keep moving around to dodge the curious fellows. while good to watch, its hard to ignore the fact that this is just a copy of the raptor-in-kitchen scene from Jurassic park.
Tim Robbins plays his small part well, but cruise eventually has to kill him when Robbins decides to start shouting crazily just meters away from the tripods. This scene isn't powerful at all because the killing takes place off-screen. A powerful scene to admire is the scene before the tripods attack the boat. Cruise and his family are in the only working car in what seems like the whole of America, and they try to navigate their way through a large crowd. things turn ugly and men start to pile into the car. Cruise and his son attempt to beat up the hundreds of irate men but fail, and cruise is held at gunpoint by a guy who wants the car. fanning is still in the car and cruise keeps telling the guy 'i just want me daughter back' this is a great and emotional scene which is a dramatic highpoint.
Otherwise the effects are great (although its hard not to have great effects with a high budget) and the performance from cruise as the embattled father is good enough for this movie. The action scenes are good, with the opening assault and the helicopters/tanks/soldiers/planes versus tripods battle spectacular. the speeding flaming train is also a great visual sight, and the noise that the tripods make before attacking is eerie and effective.
Two gripes- cruises son disappears into a flaming ball of fire and reappears slightly dirty at the end. memo to scriptwriters- have the guts to follow through with your 'death' scenes. and the ending? the tripods get ill? what??? we could have at least had more scenes of humans beating the tripods to give us our victory lift. Oh well great to look at but lacking real heart, this is a finely crafted b-movie at the end of the day, but with better effects.