Finally They Got H.G. Wells's Vision Right For Once.

Rating: 9/10 (29 September 2010)

"But who shall dwell in these worlds if they be inhabited?...Are we or they Lords of the world?...And how are all things made for man?"
I have always been a big fan of the author H.G. Wells since my youth. I always enjoyed his works like 'Time Machine', 'Food of the Gods', 'The First Men on the Moon', 'In The Days of the Comet',and so on. I love Wells's vision and his books are always short and easy reading. When I heard Hollywood wanted to do yet another version of 'War of the Worlds' I groaned. Surprisingly this turned out to be the definitive version of the book. Much better than the original George Pal movie (which I liked), and far better than the subsequent TV versions.
Most everything Wells envisioned is here. The tripod aliens, the deadly vapor heat rays, the horrifying red vines, so many of the situations are similar to the book. Of course the book was happening in England a hundred years ago and there were no children, just the man and his wife.
It is also interesting to note that the action and Fx of different disasters are so much more believable and real than the cornball action in something like '2012'. The optical composite shots may have been more advanced in '2012', but the action was ludicrous. Nothing in '2012' was remotely believable. I'm not saying the alien effects here were realistic, of course not. But the scenes of buildings crumbling and streets cracking were way more real. The FX in '2012' may have been more advanced, but nothing was staged with any attention to actual reality. In Spielberg's film they are very convincing.
Tom Cruise is also excellent. The character of the father is a average, blue collar, working class joe. Cruise brings this off convincingly. It is also a little ironic to note that his performance here as an average guy has more emotion, personality and depth, than Cruise the actor seems to have in his real life. It's almost like a person who isn't very real playing someone who is real. Strange huh? The children are also convincing too. They seem like real kids, difficult and hard to manage.
Usually I like more realistic sci-fi like '2001' or science fact like the excellent 'Apollo 13'. But H.G. Wells's story was a fantasy and Spielberg does justice to it, mean and nasty aliens and all.
I'm not even all that into Spielberg sci-fi either. I thought 'ET' and 'Close Encounters' were so corny and simplistic. I liked his film 'AI' though.
This was a great adaptation. now let's hope we can finally get a good adaptation of 'Food of the Gods' and 'Empire of the Ants'. Maybe Spielberg should try his hand at those. He did so well with this project. A real first rate sci-fi classic.