Missed Opportunity

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2005)

This summer's blockbuster is both incredible and disappointing in equal measures. As a Spielberg film it features some truly amazing visions of horror easily as good as any apocalyptic film ever made, yet at the same time it is devoid of any decent storyline and has gaping holes in the plot. Which is strange, considering it's based on a near-flawless book. If anything, this is a missed opportunity considering the heavyweight director and actor in the lead - it could have been so much better had it been recreated faithfully. Wouldn't we have screamed as the Martians destroyed 19th century London and cheered when they were smashed apart by the Ironclad battleship, only to be destroyed itself? I'd like to think we would. Instead we get a film that is more of a homage to the 50's version of War of the Worlds, than perhaps something that has more substance than say Independence Day. Doesn't Hollywood have more guts than this, or is it doomed to churn out the same Americanised narcissistic rubbish for the next decade or so? If it's popularity is anything to go by, I'd say the answer is yes to the latter.
On the bright side, at least it means that someone with a little more courage (Peter Jackson, are you listening?) will come in and make version based in 19th century Surrey, England, than 21st century East Coast USA.