Flop of the Worlds

Rating: 1/10 (9 July 2005)

So, Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, finally arrives in a blaze of publicity and super hype, which means that the film would either be brilliant, or rubbish and, I'm afraid, for me, it is the latter. What a movie Mr S could have made; a spectacular sci-fi story with fantastic effects from I.L.A.M. I think the film falls down badly by trying to emulate a 9/11 scenario, instead of making it a straight forward science fiction tale, and also by starting the film in New York, instead of Boston, then working it's way to New York. There are too many close-ups of Tom Cruise, and too much time spent with him warring with his obnoxious off-spring, which just slows the film up. Tim Robbins, as a modern-day Ben Gunn, seems to belong to another film, and again the film drags. Also, there are very few moments of true menace, and certainly nothing shown to make sense of the title. To me, those involved seem to have had no idea of what to do with the whole enterprise. It is a pity that the film fails, for there was plenty of scope for a film of the first order. I would recommended the original version of the film, which had plenty of suspense and menace, and you really cared about the characters. As a footnote, did anyone notice that film's original stars in the final scene; Gene Barry and Ann Robinson? I haven't seen any reference to these two stars in reviews and articles. How quickly people forget.